KANPUR: disputes against petrol cost hike proceeded on Friday. The persons paced out on streets and protested against the Central government's decision of expanding the charges of the gasoline by Rs 7.50.

The activists of BJP and SP protested in the town. The members of the two parties held a series of protests for the whole day on Friday. From burning the effigies of major Minister Manmohan Singh to pleading for money for getting the vehicle fuelled, the protestors did everything to raise dispute. The protestors claimed to revolving back the increased prices of gasoline, asserting that this hike has left widespread masses shattered.

The venues of the protest became the Parade traversing, Bada Chauraha, Ghantaghar traversing. The employees of the BJP torched the effigy of the PM and petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy. They increased anti-Congress slogans and termed it as anti-people. The protestors said that throughout the past three years, the prices of gasoline have bigger 25 times, which they said is a record. The BJP employees termed assembly government to be the one, which regardless of having an economist as a major Minister, has failed to control charges of all essential commodities. The ruling party at the Centre had snatched the joyfulness of the persons through its defective financial policies, they added.

The constituents of Akhil Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal joined a vehicle behind a bull at Ghantaghar crossing. This was done to demonstrate that the prices of petrol have gone so high that its tough to maintain allowance. The protestors said that time has come when persons would be compelled to get their four wheelers dragged by equines or bulls.

The BJP employees said that if the hike in gasoline charges is not taken back, the party would be compelled to hold larger agitations against the government. They said that a total of Rs 31 has bigger so far by the government in the past three years.

Effigy of petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy was scorched by the activists of the Communist Party of India at Bada Chauraha. The constituents of the SP constituents furthermore scorched the effigy of the petroleum minister and raised anti-Congress slogans and termed it to be a government of inflation. The party constituents levelled diverse charges against the Congress directed government in the Centre and said that the common persons are reeling under inflation. They said it has become tough for the persons to run the house within the limited earnings.

The SP employees accused the assembly Party's design of hiking the charges of diesel in the coming days. They said that the expanding the charges of gas cylinder would disturb the kitchen costs of the persons.

Activists of Janrajya Party disputed beside Chetna crossing. They said that the decision to hike the charges of gasoline was not a balanced one and that the assembly party will have to pay for its proceed. The party constituents also started a signature campaign which would go on till June. Several persons marked on the posters and registered dispute against the gasoline cost hike.

Dead silence. For nearly 20 minutes on the morning of Facebook's trading debut last Friday, the line Nasdaq had opened up to keep traders informed about the social media company's $16 billion IPO had been mute. Well after the stock was supposed to have opened at 11 a.m. New York time, no one from Nasdaq was talking - and there was still no sign of trading.

Finally, at 11:28 a.m., an unidentified person announced that the shares would open in about 2 minutes. Nasdaq also said orders and cancellations were still being processed, according to several sources listening to the call.

Those crucial 20 minutes created confusion that turned into chaos over the next few hours as market makers - the brokers who quote bid and offer prices - struggled to figure out what was happening. They were rebuffed in their attempts to get Nasdaq to halt trading and sort out a growing number of problems.

A lack of communication and, some say, misinformation from Nasdaq may have been central to the failed debut of Facebook's shares. Market makers - crucial to the smooth operation of stock trading - were unsure about their exposure for hours. Investors were in the dark as to whether their trades had gone through, in some cases for days afterwards.

The turmoil caused the four big market-makers for Facebook's stock, Knight Capital Group, Citigroup's Automated Trading Desk, Citadel Securities, and UBS AG to lose around $115 million between them.

"There was very little if any communication from Nasdaq throughout the entire process," said Mark Turner, head of trading at Instinet, another market-maker based in New York. "As a matter of fact, we feel there was miscommunication."

Instinet said it also suffered a loss, though it wasn't specific other than to say it was significantly less than the $30-35 million reported by Knight.

The precise actions taken by Nasdaq officials last Friday are still unclear. Spokespeople for Nasdaq declined numerous requests for comment, referring Reuters to a status alert issued on Monday that outlined some of the problems encountered and some of the steps it took in an attempt to resolve them.

Fist-pumping
The Nasdaq call, led by Nasdaq Vice President Todd Golub, according to sources, was scheduled to last 2 hours from 10:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. to make sure that the exchange was keeping in close touch with the market. It is a normal event for a big IPO.

However, this call stretched into the late afternoon, as the most anticipated new US stock offering in years turned into one of the ugliest.

The fallout from the events last Friday has become a continuing nightmare for Nasdaq OMX Group, which wooed the social media network for months and openly prides itself on its technology.

The result is another black eye for an exchange industry already suffering because investors not only lost confidence in the financial crisis but through the "flash crash" in May 2010 when $1 trillion in shareholder equity was temporarily wiped out in a matter of minutes.

Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld pumped his fist at the symbolic opening bell ceremony at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California next to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg an hour-and-a-half before the company's stock was due to start trading. There were no outward signs then of the problems that were about to unfold back on Wall Street.

At 10:58 a.m., Nasdaq issued a notice that the Facebook opening would be delayed until 11:05 a.m. IPO delays of that nature are not unusual, especially with a massive launch like Facebook.

But then the revised start time passed without an opening trade on the stock. Minutes passed as traders waited. Nasdaq's next communication came at 11:13 a.m., when it noted in a terse emailed message to people who subscribe to the exchange's alerts that Nasdaq is "experiencing a delay in delivering the opening print in Facebook," with no other details.

Meanwhile, market-makers were receiving messages about their orders that later proved to be inaccurate. They say they were told during the period between 11:05 and 11:30 a.m., when the stock finally opened, that orders were still being taken for the opening price.

"Nasdaq representatives were stating right up until 11:29 that they were still accepting orders in Facebook for the open," said Turner of Instinet.

But that wasn't the case. Later, Turner said he was told that orders submitted up to 25 minutes before the opening were either canceled or not submitted into the marketplace until about 1:50 p.m - more than two hours later. Other market makers received similar messages.

Behind the scenes, the massive order volume was overwhelming Nasdaq's systems.

Orders that were supposed to be processed in 3 milliseconds were taking 5 milliseconds, said one person familiar with exchange operations. This proved to be a major problem: In the extra two milliseconds new orders flooded in, thwarting the system's ability to establish an opening price for the stock and leading to a backup in unprocessed orders.

"This is starting to get bizarre," Wayne Kaufman, an equity market strategist at brokerage John Thomas Financial, said from the firm's trading floor on Wall Street, around 11:15 a.m.

Finally, the decision was made to put through a fix to the systems problem and get the stock trading. That move to a secondary matching engine used the order book as it appeared at 11:11 a.m. - but this meant new orders and changes in orders that came in later did not show up in the opening price. A matching engine is a computer that pairs bids and offers to complete trades.

Eric Noll, Nasdaq's head of transaction services, said in a statement earlier this week that the fix instead led to 2-1/2 hours of uncertainty during which brokers were unable to see the results of their trades.

Trading halt?
The stock opened at 11:30:09 a.m. at $42.05 a share. An investor looking at a quote screen might have thought the trouble had ended there. In reality, the problems were about to worsen.

After initially heading to a high of $45, the stock soon began to plunge towards its issue price at $38. Lead underwriter Morgan Stanley stepped in to defend the stock while some others - unsure whether their orders had been processed or not - backed away from trading or decided to sell.

If confidence is undermined at the open, people "pull back because their orders are essentially going into a black hole," said former Nasdaq Vice Chairman David Weild.

Clients were telling their brokers they had not received confirmation of orders - which normally come through in seconds.

"Multiple market makers called Nasdaq and asked them to halt the stock and said, 'You have a problem and it's getting worse,' and their response was, 'The stock is trading normally,'" said an executive at one market-maker.

It is unclear who would have the authority to halt the stock. Nasdaq would not comment on whether it considered such a move.

For market-makers, the chaos was particularly problematic because they didn't know what they and their clients owned, and at what price.

"Should I be selling stock, should I be buying? And what's my price point?" said another official at a market-making firm. "You just don't know, so you were in effect flying blind until 2 o'clock."