Tech stocks plunge and sensex sheds 122 pts on back of Infosys growth
Mumbai: Software stocks crashed on Wednesday with the BSE Sensex hitting its 2-year low. Selling pressure, especially from FIIs, led the benchmark index fall by 122 points as most of the technology stocks hit the lower circuit. Tech and media stocks like Wipro, SSi and Zee also plummeted at the bourses.

The slower growth announcement by Infosys was the main reason FIIs and other institutional investors went on a selling spree in all the tech stocks. Significant gains in the Nasdaq and Dow Jones last night failed to lift the market sentiments. The Nasdaq and Dow Jones went up by 117 and 258 points respectively.

In addition reports by the World Bank of a slowdown in Indian software exports due to the US slowdown seems to have unnerved the FIIs.

Ketan Parekh and his involvement in various companies also added to the adverse market sentiments.

After opening slightly higher in the early trading hours, the BSE fell below the 3,300 level and reached a high of 3481.15 points before closing at 3336.43 points as against Tuesday’s close of 3458.39 points, a loss of 121.96 points or 3.53 per cent. The S&P CNX Nifty also went down 39.5 points to close at 1063.55 points against Tuesday’s close of 1103.05 points.
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Sebi suspects HSBC-Zee share deal
Mumbai: Recent investigations by Sebi revealed that HSBC Investment Bank bought 1.08 crore shares of Zee Telefilms in mid-February, amounting to 2.6 per cent of the company’s paid-up capital. Now it has asked the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Enforcement Directorate to look into these purchases.

Sebi sources said that the probe revealed that Triumph International, owned by Ketan Parekh, brokered the deal and it was a spot transaction between a FII and a local party and according to Sebi regulations, spot deals between FIIs and domestic firms are not permitted. The regulator has in fact put a ban on all such deals.

Sebi is understood to have taken a serious cognisance of the deal since it is a violation of the regulations.

The fund is registered in Amsterdam and managed out of London by HSBC Investment Bank. HSBC officials were not willing to offer any comments on the deal. Interestingly, the deal amouting to the tune of Rs 254 crore constitutes about 96 per cent of the FII's total corpus.

The fund manged by Sanjay Duggal has a total corpus of Rs 265 crore. It is understood that the shares were acquired a price ranging between Rs 230-Rs 240.
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BSE contends Bajajs rigged Amara Raja scrip
New Delhi: The Bombay Stock Exchange in its interim investigation report on the Amara Raja Batteries price rigging case submitted on Wednesday states that there is prima facie evidence of Hari Narayan Bajaj and associates operating in concert, purchased more than 15 per cent of the equity of the Amara Raja Batteries.

Sources said BSE investigations revealed heavy purchases by the Bajajs prior to the presentation of the budget.

The Amara Raja scrip shot up from Rs 63 to Rs 320 in just four months, apparently through concentrated and circular purchases by some 20-odd brokers.

Later, they allegedly dumped Amara Raja stocks at around Rs 300 levels through a Mumbai-based brokerage firm. Subsequently, the stock has been on a free fall for the last several trading sessions.

Shailesh Bajaj is said to have defaulted to the tune of Rs 42 crore in payments to the clique of brokers through which he made purchases. He had been declared defaulter by the Bombay Stock Exchange a few years ago for his failure to meet obligations in Sesa Goa scrip.

The report further says these people had a huge number of trades under their name and even substantial badla positions in the stock. The BSE will submit a detailed report to Sebi after gathering further evidence. NSE has already submitted its report to Sebi.

Sebi is already looking at declaring Shailesh Bajaj and Hari Narayan Bajaj as defaulters for their involvement in the manipulation of the scrip.

The promoters of Amara Raja Batteries have said that neither the promoters nor the management of the company had participated in any transactions which led to a sharp dip in the company’s scrip price during this month.
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