Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday attributed the second sharpest fall of over 700 points in the Indian stock markets to "motivated rumours."

"In the morning session the market gained 400 points, in afternoon, there were motivated rumours in the Bombay brokers circle," he said on the fall of the market for the second successive day.

He told global investors that the Indian market was vibrant and regulations were in place -- a comment possibly aimed at soothing foreign institutional investors.

"The Indian market is one of the best among the emerging markets... the real strength of our market lies in regulation. Sebi has become an enviable regulator," he said at the annual investors conference 2007 organised by ICICI [Get Quote] Securities in New York.