“The sub-prime mortgage market crisis will not directly affect us, because except one private sector bank, which has made its exposure, none of our public sector banks has any exposure to sub-prime mortgage market,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in his reply to a debate on the Budget 2008-09 in Rajya Sabha.

“But, when crisis moved from sub-prime mortgage market to housing market, and now housing market to the credit market, there is impact upon India. There is impact in terms of credit flows and financial flows...But, at the moment, I believe that impact is second order impact and a moderate impact,” he said.

As regards the stock markets, they take cues from developments in the US and Asian markets, he added. “In fact, we  now have to track what is happening in Asian markets. Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai open before Indian market opens, and if you watch closely, you will find what is happening in Asian markets is impacting the Indian stock market,” he said.