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Probe tracks Rathi firm in Amara Raja stock bungle

Ashwin J Punnen

The Securities and Exchange Board of India's investigation into the recent bear hammering in certain scrips has found that Navratan Capital and Securities was one of the largest seller in Amara Raja Batteries in the settlement number 10 of the National Stock Exchange. The broking firm is associated with former Bombay Stock Exchange president Anand Rathi.

The market regulator has found that Navratan Capital sold over 200,000 shares on March 5 and March 7, when Amara Raja shares were ruling at Rs 300 levels.

The firm is among the four broking firms barred from trading by the market watchdog after the Rathi tape episode.

Sebi is investigating into trades of Rathi and his associate firms to ascertain whether he had acted as per the price sensitive information sought from the surveillance department of the BSE.

The investigation found that Navratan Securities had heavily sold Amara Raja stocks on the very next settlement after seeking information from the bourse's surveillance department on March 2.

Both the NSE and the BSE had stopped the payout in the settlement after detecting the manipulation in the scrip.

The Amara Raja shares had crashed drastically since then and they lost over 78 per cent in just eight consecutive trading sessions. The scrip is currently ruling at Rs 80 levels.

Sebi is already investigating into the price manipulation in Amara Raja and has identified Shalish Bajaj's and Hari Narayan Bajaj's involvement in jacking up the price. Some of the brokers in the bear cartel identified by Sebi in the stock report were also found to have sold heavily in the scrip in the settlement number 10.

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