The capital market, which moves up and down at the drop of a hat, lacks complete sense of humour, observed Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

"The capital market lacks complete sense of humour," he said in a lighter vein to the manner in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he himself were once attacked for their remarks on the behaviour of bourses.

As finance minister, Singh was pilloried for having remarked that he would not lose sleep over the daily movements in stock market, during the scam days of 1992-93, Chidambaram said at a book release function.

Likewise, when he was the finance minister in the United Front government, Chidambaram was attacked for commenting that capital market was as important as Khan Market (an up-market shopping centre in Delhi).

Capital market should have some humour and should not react vehemently to such off-the-cuff remarks, Chidambaram said, hesitating to comment on the markets now.

He also paid a left-handed compliment to SEBI Chairman G N Bajpai for having found time to write a book on securities.

"Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had once commented that the ideal time one gets to write books is in jail," he said, asking Bajpai: "I hope you don't consider SEBI as a prison."

He, however, laced his comments by saying he appreciated Bajpai for his book and praised him for his 'time management.'

The book was a useful material for learning about stock market and dissemination of knowledge was essential, he said.