Cognizant pip Infosys

6 AUG, 2012, 10.36PM IST, N SHIVAPRIYA,ET BUREAU 

Five reasons that helped Cognizant pip Infosys             

Cognizant Technology Solutions beat Infosys by a whisker with a revenue of $ 1,795 million as compared to Infosys' $ 1,752 million in the June 2012 quarter, although it still lags Infosys in profits. Indications are Cognizant could continue grow faster than Infosys even in the coming quarters. Five reasons that helped the company pip Infosys: 

* Good growth in financial services vertical, the vertical contributing the largest chunk to revenues for both firms. Cognizant's revenue from financial services clients grew 6% sequentialy, while Infosys saw a sequential decline. Cognizant's market share in financial services is also growing. 

* Higher investment in sales and marketing. The company follows a policy of keeping its margins at 19% - 20% and investing the rest in sales and future growth areas 

* More flexible on margins and pricing, giving Cognizant more opportunities to win projects and grow in verticals such as financial services, where players have become more cautious and are facing uncertanity because of specific events. 

* Cognizant has invested signficantly in building consulting capability in the last few quarters. Benefits from some of those investments could be kicking in by providing more downstream revenue for IT services. 

* Additonally, management commentary indicates that Cognizant may have been able to capture the spends in areas like mobility, big data, social and cloud more successfully. 

Cognizant has given a guidance of at least $ 1,875 million for the September 2012 quarter. Infosys has not given a quarterly guidance for the first time, citing the uncertain environment and project postponments. If Infosys' revenues drop, as it did in the June quarter then Cognizant could end up with bigger and more distinct lead over Infosys. 

Cognizant has given an annual revenue growth guidance of 20% for its financial year ending December 2012. Infosys, which has a financial year ending March 2013, has given a growth guidance which is a fraction of it at 5%. Unless Infosys revises its guidance dramatically, Cognizant could end the year bigger than Infosys and capturing the second largest IT exporter status, which Infosys currently holds.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/earnings/earnings-analysis/five-reasons-that-helped-cognizant-pip-infosys/articleshow/15377419.cms

BUY SUGARS

I BELIEVE PEOPLE CLOSE TO ME KNOW WHEN I RECOMMENDED SUGAR STOCKS TO BUY, ESPECIALLY BALRAMPUR AT 48-50 LEVEL. I EVEN SUGGESTED TO BUY ANY SUGAR STOCK OR A SCRIP NAME HAVING "SUGARS". ...

Balrampur Chini Mills (Rs 64.1)

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We recommend a buy in the stock of Balrampur Chini Mills from a short-term perspective. It is apparent from the charts of the stock that it has been on an intermediate-term uptrend since it registered its 52-week low of Rs 32.7 in December 2011. Its key support base at around Rs 48 provided support in May and June this year. The stock subsequently resumed its up-move and is in a medium-term uptrend. Reinforcing its uptrend, the stock gained 10 per cent last week. On Monday, this upward momentum continued and it surged 6.7 per cent breaching a key resistance at Rs 62. We notice that there is an increase in volumes over the past five trading sessions. The stock is hovering well above its 50 and 200-day moving averages. Both daily and weekly relative strength indices are featuring in the bullish zone. Likewise, daily as well as weekly moving average convergence divergence indicators are hovering in the positive terrain implying upward momentum. We are bullish on the stock from a short-term perspective. We expect its up move to prolong and reach our price target of Rs 66.5 or Rs 68.5 in the ensuing trading sessions. Traders with short-term perspective can buy the stock while maintaining stop-loss at Rs 62.

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated August 7, 2012)

Operators GAME- Manipulate Stock prices

6 AUG, 2012, 04.38AM IST, APURV GUPTA,ET BUREAU 

Operators used front companies to manipulate stock prices: Sebi

Market regulator Sebi's interim order restraining 19 entities on Friday shows that significant market activity in certain stocks continues to emanate from front entities, which seem to be acting on behalf of operators or financiers. 

The initial probe has thrown forward certain interesting facts on the trading concentration by a handful of entities and mismatch in the trading activity of these clients vis-a-vis their disclosed income in the knowyour-client or KYC form. 

On July 26, these entities sold large chunks of shares in Tulip Telecom, Pipavav Defence, Glodyne Technoserve and Parsvnath Developers leading to a crash in their share prices. Sebi says these cannot be passed off as normal trades. 

Market analysts say that the data gives an impression that some of these entities were possibly acting as fronts of some operators or promoters for the purpose of maintaining prices artificially high. 

Arun Kejriwal, founder of information and research firm KRIS, says that a large part of the volume in the markets is not genuine. "In this case, only a handful of suspicious entities were actively trading in certain stocks. Most of them were operating in tandem with each other and had no other major trading pattern other than a few stocks. It seems that most of them were acting as fronts for somebody." 

Sebi, in its order, says that the trading pattern does not appear to be commensurate with the income shown in the KYC records. Take the case of Neelanchan Mercantile, a company which has not provided its income details. It has done a gross trading of around Rs 1,508 crore this calendar year so far. Almost 91 per cent of this was confined to the four aforementioned stocks. The data also shows that many entities have a common address and telephone number or an address in Kolkata. In a specific case, the address is shared with another company barred by Sebi from trading in the securities market for creation of artificial market and price manipulation. 

ET, in its edition on July 27, reported that most of the sellers were fronts of a Kolkata-based operator, who was involved in the 2001 payment crisis on the Calcutta Stock Exchange.
Curiously, the order says that the share sales happened at a discount and were done to lower the share prices. While the order does not give any reason, brokers say that the sales at a discount will happen only if the seller is expecting a default, making it difficult to recover their investment. 

"The investors seem to be desperate to sell the shares irrespective of the price. It seems that they resorted to selling after the financier raised his hands. Sebi should go beyond these entities and find out if all the disclosures made by the companies are proper. One should also find out how these entities have shown small amount of income and traded shares worth hundred of crores," adds Kejriwal.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/market-news/operators-used-front-companies-to-manipulate-stock-prices-sebi/articleshow/15369432.cms

YEAR LONG CONSOLIDATION - WAIT UPTO SEPTEMBER!!!

Index outlook: The bulls get going

LOKESHWARRI S K

The week began with an inexplicable burst of buying on Monday. Stocks managed to hang onto higher levels in the following sessions despite the RBI’s gloomy prognosis on the economy in the monetary policy and drought in many regions of the country.

The US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank also refused to pander to investors’ expectations. But the benchmarks did not react too adversely to this stance and the Sensex ended the week 359 points higher. Gain in the Nifty was 116 points.

Resilience of stock prices to the slew of adverse developments means that the stock prices have reached a saturation point as far as their ability to absorb further bad news goes. Clearly, the path of least resistance is now upward.

Investors continued their indifferent attitude to stocks resulting in lacklustre volumes in both the cash and derivative segment. FIIs were net buyers in most sessions. Investors will look closely at the next batch of quarterly earnings to decide about stock-specific strategy.

Rain clouds will also do their bit to cheer or dampen the market mood.

Weekly oscillators are beginning to turn positive indicating that the medium-term trend could be on the verge of reversing higher. Weekly rate of change oscillator has moved above the zero line and the weekly relative strength index is also in the bullish zone after displaying positive divergence. Daily oscillators are also beginning to move up.

The Sensex has moved in a 1,000-point range between 16,500 and 17,500 in July and ended with a star formation with a long lower shadow. It is also interesting to note that the Sensex recovered from intra-day lows to close near the day’s high on both Thursday as well as Friday. This denotes demand for stocks at lower levels.

Sensex (17,197.1)

The short-term trend is looking more promising after last Monday’s rally. The count that we are right now following is that a corrective sideways consolidation is in motion since the December low of 15,135 in the Sensex. Third leg of this move that is currently in motion has the targets of 17,842 and then 19,136.

It is possible that this leg further sub-divides into three smaller parts. The Sensex could then be expected to rise to 17,761 or 18,480 in the weeks ahead. We will retain a positive medium-term view unless the index goes on to close below 16,467.

Strong close below this level will mean that the third leg has ended at 17,631. Downward targets in this scenario would be 15,916 and 14,857.

The short-term trend in the Sensex is up. That the index bounced above its 50 and 200 day moving averages is also a positive. It can now attempt to move to 17,595 or 17,719 in the days ahead. Short-term trend will turn negative on a close below 16,870.

Nifty (5,215.7)

The Nifty too is in a short-term uptrend since the trough of 5,032 formed on July 26. Traders can hold their long positions as long as the index trades above 5,113.

Reversal from the current levels can take the index higher to 5,296, 5,378 or 5,516 in the days ahead.

But a close below 5,113 will mean that the index can lose further ground sliding to 5,049 or 4,928 in the upcoming sessions.

The medium-term trend in the index is sideways. Movement last week suggests that the C wave of the consolidation phase that began at 4,770 can further sub-divide into smaller waves. Minor C of this wave can take the Nifty higher to 5,389 or 5,610 in the weeks ahead.

But close below 5,100 will imply that the C wave has ended at 5,348 and the long-term down trend has now resumed.

Global benchmarks managed to move slightly higher last week despite both the Federal Reserve and the ECB disappointing investors. European indices including the CAC, DAX and the FTSE closed around 3 per cent higher last week.

CBOE Volatility index declined further to 15.6 to close at the lowest level since this March.

The Dow closed in the red in the first four sessions of the week. But it made up on Friday as strong jobs data helped the index close 218 points higher with a giant bullish engulfing pattern in the daily chart.

This maintains the sequence of higher troughs since June low of 12,452.

We maintain the short-term target at 13,338 for the index. Medium-term targets remain at 13,848 and 14,198. Close below 12,700 is required to reverse the positive short-term view in this index.

Nymex light crude is moving higher once again after testing the support zone between $75 and $78. It could now move towards the $100 or even $115 mark again.

The point of concern is that a three-wave correction appears to have been completed at $77 on June 29. If the third leg of the move from 2009-low takes off, it can lift crude prices towards $147 again.

lokeshwarri.sk@thehindu.co.in

Keywords: CBOE Volatility index, Sensex, Nifty, stock and shares, Nymex light crudehttp://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/investment-world/market-strategy/article3727488.ece?homepage=true

FACEBOOK HYPE FADED

5 AUG, 2012, 11.06AM IST, PTI 

Facebook's per user valuation dips below $50-mark

.....................

Facebook's India user base has also grown to 59 million from 45 million during this period. However, a sharp plunge in the company's share price has led to total valuation of Facebook's India users nearly halving to $2.8 billion, from more than $5 billion at the time of IPO. 

The total market valuation of the world's largest social network now stands at $45 billion, down from a value of $104 billion it commanded at its Initial Public Offer (IPO) price of $38 each. The shares are currently trading near $21 level and had dipped below $20 last week. 

As per its current market value, users of Mark Zuckerburg-led Facebook would be valued at about $47 each, down from $115 each based on the company's IPO valuation. .............http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/facebooks-per-user-valuation-dips-below-50-mark/articleshow/15360673.cms
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NEW DELHI, AUG 5: 

Mauritius-based entities seem to have gone on a selling spree in the Indian stock market and have off-loaded shares worth about Rs 3,000 crore in about 24 companies since the beginning of this fiscal.

The companies whose shares have been sold by various Mauritius-based entities, many of which are units of large global investors, include companies like Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Hindusthan and state-run MTNL.

These shares have been mostly sold through large open market transactions in the past four months.

As per the data available with the stock exchanges, various Mauritius-based entities have sold shares worth close to Rs 3,000 crore, while the total stock purchase made by them since April 1, 2012 amounts to just about Rs 600 crore - translating into a net outflow of over Rs 2,200 crore.

This large-scale selling has come at a time when many Mauritius-based entities have come under the regulatory scanner for possible routing of illicit wealth of Indians and NRIs back into the country.

Market regulator SEBI has come across numerous Mauritius- based funds during its stock-specific probes in cases of market manipulation, as also irregularities related to IPOs, GDRs, takeovers and insider trading, sources have said.

There are fears that many of the Mauritius funds could be related to each other, as SEBI has found some common threads between different entities based out of the island nation.

Mauritius-based entities form a major chunk of foreign investors in the Indian market, but most of them have either stopped infusing fresh money or have been selling their investments in recent months amid fresh taxation proposals.

This has further raised the hackles of the regulatory agencies, as the proposed changes in the tax regime are supposed to check flow of black money, among others.

The market experts are, however, of the view that the recent sell-off by Mauritius based entities could be just a normal churn in their portfolios.

Destimoney Securities’ Sudip Bandhopadhyay said that “most of the India-registered FIIs are based in Mauritius and they prefer buying or selling through open market transactions mainly on account of price fluctuation.”

CNI Research Head Kishor Ostwal said: “It seems that one of the big clients has offloaded its holdings in the open market, while another one has bought it. It may also be that the client has changed its fund house.”

Keywords: Mauritius-based entities, sell in Indian stock market, off-loaded shares, Rs 3, 000 crore in, 24 companies, beginning, fiscal

Promoter Group Entities- RELIANCE, BAJAJ AUTO...

Sun, Aug 05, 2012 at 11:25

RIL streamlines promoter holding; pares nos of firms to 55

Top private sector firm Reliance Industries has streamlined its promoter holding by bringing down the total number of promoter group entities to 55 -- still the third highest for any Sensex-listed company.

Top private sector firm Reliance Industrieshas streamlined its promoter holding by bringing down the total number of promoter group entities to 55 -- still the third highest for any Sensex-listed company.

As per the latest data available with stock exchanges, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) now has a total of 55 entities forming part of its promoter group -- down from 62 at the start of the current financial year 2012-13.

Prior to this, the total number of promoter entities of RIL had declined from 65 at the end of December 2011, while it stood at 68 at the close of fiscal ended March 31, 2011.

Ever since the listed companies started disclosing the number of their promoter group entities to the stock exchanges in June 2006, the number of RIL's promoter group firms has been lowest at 41 at the end of fiscal ended March 31, 2010.

However, it rose sharply to 74 in the very next quarter and remained the same for three consecutive quarters before beginning to decline in January-March period of 2011.

Among the 30 Sensex companies, the number of promoter entities is largest for Bajaj Auto (81), followed by Jindal Steel (56) and RIL (55).

While this number has remained unchanged for Jindal Steel for many quarters, Bajaj Auto had a higher number of 84 promoter group entities at the end of December 2011.

RIL's 55 promoters currently comprise of six individuals, including its chief Mukesh Ambani and his family members, one trust and 48 corporate bodies.

The family members include Mukesh Ambani's mother Kokila Dhirubhai Ambani, wife Nita Ambani and children Isha, Akash and Anant, although their holdings are minuscule.

Almost three-fourth of the total promoter holding is owned through LLP (Limited Liability Partnership) firms, which are globally considered as among the most tax-efficient corporate structures for holding companies.

Out of the total of 48 corporate bodies forming part of RIL's promoter group, as many as 29 are LLPs. All the promoters together hold about 45% stake in RIL, out of which more than 33% are held through these LLPs

$440 million LOSS from the software problem

Trading software ran amok with no 'off' switch at Knight Capital

Employees had no idea how to stop the blizzard of erratic trading on Wednesday

Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Nathaniel Popper & Michael J De La Merced / Aug 05, 2012, 00:45 IST When computerised stock trading runs amok, as it did this week on Wall Street, the firm responsible typically can jump in and hit a kill switch. But as a torrent of faulty trades spewed Wednesday morning from a Knight Capital Group trading program, no one at the firm managed to stop it for more than a half-hour. Some Knight employees and New York Stock Exchange officials noticed the blizzard of erratic orders in the minutes after trading started and sent alarmed messages to Knight managers, according to the exchange and Knight employees who declined to be identified discussing the matter. As Knight struggled to survive on Friday, employees at the company, market overseers and other electronic trading firms were asking the same basic question: Where was the off switch? Several market insiders said that they were bewildered, because in a market where trading losses can pile up in seconds, executives typically have a simple command that can immediately halt trading. “Even just a minute or two would have been surprising to me. On these time scales, that is an eternity,” said David Lauer, a trader at a high-speed firm until a year ago. “To have something going on for 30 minutes is shocking.” Regulators are planning to look into why there was such a lag between the discovery of the problem and when Knight's trading ceased, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. But so far the company has not provided any answers, even to its own staff, employees said. On Friday, Knight, which in the last decade grew into a leading broker for American stocks, climbed off the mat, securing emergency financing that allowed it to continue operating for the day. It also enticed some of its customers to resume sending client stock trades, two days after it disclosed a possibly fatal $440 million loss from the software problem. But it faced a desperate weekend of maneuvering to find a more permanent solution for its woes. Knight's short-term financing was meant to keep it alive until Monday, when its executives and advisers hope to have deals completed to remove any doubt about the firm's future. Advisers, including Sandler O'Neill & Partners, have been talking with Knight rivals and private equity shops about either buying divisions of the firm or investing in the business. Among the businesses that Knight is in discussions about selling is its futures brokerage unit, largely made up of operations the firm purchased only in May, according to people briefed on the matter. Potential buyers for the business include R J O'Brien, which is based in Chicago and is one of the oldest futures clearing firms in the country. Others that have expressed interest in potential investments or deals include rivals to Knight like the Citadel Investment Group, Virtu Financial and Peak6 Investments, as well as private equity firms like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG Capital, these people said. Knight is also working with Goldman Sachs to help unwind the trades behind its extensive loss, according to people briefed on the matter. Goldman has agreed to buy, at a discount, the shares that the trading firm had accumulated. Such a move would help Knight by taking the portfolio off its hands and freeing up capital. Coming after a number of previous market mishaps caused by faulty computerised trading, Knight's trading problems rekindled a broader discussion about the vulnerability of an increasingly complex and fragmented stock market. In a statement, the chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary L Schapiro, called the Wednesday episode unacceptable and said her staff would “convene a round table in the coming weeks to discuss further steps that can be taken to address these critical issues.” Duncan Niederauer, chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, said in a conference call with investors that the incident was a “call to action,” and that the exchange was prepared to lead the way on reforms. “We are all understanding—meaning we, market participants, and most importantly the regulators—are understanding that speed is not always better,” Niederauer said. Within the financial community, much of the attention was still focused on what happened Wednesday morning. While the New York Stock Exchange has said that there was “irregular trading” in only about 140 stocks listed on its exchange that day, Knight's trading in those stocks was so extreme that it was visible in the volume of trading in all stocks. A New York Times analysis of New York Stock Exchange volume on Wednesday morning showed that during the first minute of trading there was 12 percent more trading in all stocks than there had been on average during the previous seven days. By the third minute of trading there was 116 percent more trading than the previous week's average. The difference reached a peak at 9:58 a.m., when the volume was six times greater. After that, trading volume fell off sharply, nearing the recent average at 10:15 a.m. Mr. Niederauer said that the exchange had noticed the problem and contacted Knight “within minutes” of the 9:30 opening bell. Knight's failure to respond sooner was particularly mystifying to other traders because on Wednesday the firm had introduced new trading software. Industry experts said that this would normally be cause for programmers and other employees to be on high alert. Once the problems began, many traders said it would have made sense if the firm's employees had not caught the problems for the first minute or so, given the speed at which Knight's program was firing off orders. After that, though, the problems were visible for all to see. Howard Tai, an expert in high-speed trading at the Aite Group, said that at all the firms where he worked, there were several warning signals built into every computerized trading system. When all else failed, there was always the “automatic kill switch” that could immediately stop trading. Mr. Lauer said, “It's kind of mind-boggling that it got so out of control.” Azam Ahmed and Ben Protess contributed reporting.

Now wait for lawsuit!!!

Spectrum tab fixed. Now wait for lawsuits

Published: Saturday, Aug 4, 2012, 8:56 IST 
By Beryl Menezes | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Picture this:
India’s telecom companies owe Rs1.7 lakh crore to banks.
So they wanted an 80% cut in the reserve price for 2G spectrum. They got 23%.

The Cabinet on Friday confirmed a reserve price of Rs14,000 crore to buy 5 mega hertz of pan-India 2G spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band, while for CDMA technology operators, the 800 Mhz spectrum base price would be even more – Rs18,000 crore – or 1.3 times the 1800 Mhz price.

But a decision on price to be paid by incumbents holding spectrum beyond the 6.2 Mhz limit was deferred.

The frozen price is about 7.5 times the price paid in 2008 for spectrum.

While telcos have to pay only a third of the final bid price upfront, they still need to take fresh loans of over Rs3 lakh crore to roll out the cutting-edge business, industry folks estimate.

On their part, telcos will have to cobble big cash, too -- as much as 20-30% of the winning bid price – in bank guarantees.
Banks, which are already trembling after disbursing the aforementioned loans, are chary of taking fresh gargantuan positions to the sector, say sources.

Says HK Vesuna, manager, corporate credit, Central Bank of India: “We don’t wish to burn our fingers with the telecom sector again. We are certainly not inclined to lend to them.”
Ergo, dialling for an auction disaster and a slew of lawsuits by affected entities? Experts say very likely.

“The telecom industry is reeling under tremendous stress due to high debt, banks’ unwillingness to lend and falling revenue,” Hemant Joshi, a telecommunications analyst with Deloitte Haskins & Sells, told Bloomberg. “These can only be cured with a strategic government policy and not by some poorly thought out rebates.”

Says Rajan Matthews, director general of COAI, which represents the GSM lobby: “While we are disappointed, both new and incumbent operators will participate in the auctions, albeit only in select circles. This will mean that the final auction discovered price will not move much beyond the reserve price, as there will also be fewer bidders.”

In a landmark judgement on February 2 this year, the Supreme Court quashed 122 telecom licences for their alleged participation in the 2G spectrum scam.

The court also said that a new auction, to be completed by August 31, would allow tainted operators a chance to win back their spectrum in order to continue their operations in the country. Failing this, they would be forced to wind up operations by September 7.

However, the problem arose with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India preferring to err on the side of caution and setting a base price at Rs18,000 crore, or roughly twice the 3G auction bidding price.

Later, fearing auction failure, an EGoM headed by now finance minister P Chidambaram, suggested a 25% reduction in original base price to Rs14,000-16,000 crore to the Cabinet.

However, in addition, telecom operators would need to pay spectrum usage charges of 3-6% of their annual revenues.
Telecom operators had also deemed this price too high, especially for new telcos, who would end up paying much more, having not yet completed their roll-out obligations, and asked for a reduction to Rs10,000 crore.

Telenor and Sistema Shyam Telecom, the two international players who were aggressive about winning back their lost spectrum and continuing operations in the country, even threatened to leave the telecom sector, if the base price was not lowered.

However, in a statement today, Telenor said, “From media reports, it appears that the government is taking some positive steps towards these issues. However, until we see these and the full auction rules in the information memorandum, we are unable to come to any new position with regards to the auctions. Meanwhile, we urge the government to do everything it can to conduct the auctions within the August 31 deadline.”

According to the telecom minister today, a meeting is likely to be held on Monday to decide on the auction schedule, while the spectrum auctioneer will decide on the time-frame for the auction.

Other decisions taken today by the Cabinet, included approval of the existing slab-wise system of spectrum usage charges, according to which operators will have to pay only for the amount of spectrum that they actually use.

STOCK MANIPULATION....

Stock crash: Probe to be completed soon

AGENCIES

Posted: Saturday, Aug 04, 2012 at 1814 hrs IST

New Delhi: Sebi Chairman U K Sinha today said detailed investigations into the recent crash of mid-cap stocks would be completed fast and action would be taken against those found guilty of stock manipulation.

A day after Sebi barred 19 entities in an interim order in this matter, Sinha said: "On preliminary investigation, we found that things were not right. We have taken some action. Detailed investigation has been started. We are going through that".

"We hope to complete the investigations fast and as soon as it is completed, we will be taking action," Sinha told reporters here on the sidelines of a conference organised by PHD Chamber.

After initial probe into share plunge of 20-26 per cent in four mid-cap stocks -- Parsvnath, Tulip Telecom, Glodyne Technoserve and Pipavav Defence -- on July 26, Sebi last night barred 19 entities, including three individuals, from the securities market till further orders.

The 19 entities, many of whom are found to be related to each other with common addresses and phone numbers in Kolkata, include 4a Financials Securities, A To Z Steels, Ajit Kumar Jain, Cheminare TradeComm, G N Credits and Gajria Jayna Precision Industries.

Sebi had said a sharp downward movement was noticed in these stocks between 0915 and 0949 hours on that day. These stocks witnessed sharp intra-day price volume movement on both BSE and NSE on July 26, although no major corporateannouncements or price sensitive information was disclosed to the exchanges by these companies during previous 15 days.

The others among the barred entities include Neelanchal Mercantile Pvt Ltd, North Eastern Publishing & Advertising Co, Passions System Solution, Premium Hospitality Services, Ramkripa Securities, Umang Nemani, Venus Infosoft, White Horse Trading Co and Yashika Holding Pvt Ltd.

These persons and entities can file their objections, if any, within 21 days from the date of this order, Sebi had said in the order dated August 3.

Sebi bars 39 entities for price rigging

Sebi bars 39 entities for price rigging

TNN Feb 3, 2011, 05.33am IST

MUMBAI: Among the investing community on Dalal Street, it's believed that a large number of speculators indulge in circular trading- trying to push up a stock, lure gullible investors to buy those scrips and then quietly exit, leaving investors with dud stocks. Late on Wednesday, market regulator Sebi banned 39 such entities from the market for indulging in circular trading in Spectacle Infotek, Goldstone Technologies, Gemstone Investments, LGS Global and Well Pack Papers & Containers. The order followed a detailed investigation in these stocks and their price movement between 2008 and 2010, the market regulator said.

The investigation report pointed out that several of these entities are linked to each other, through directorships in the same company, introduction during the mandatory "know your client (KYC)" verifications, have common telephone numbers, and some have even furnished the same email id in KYC form. The Sebi investigation found there were 196 members within the Walmiki-Shah group and 43 in the Pabari-Parikh group, and identified 39 entities which were the core members.

Sebi barred 39 entities from accessing the stock market, and also prohibited them from buying, selling or dealing in shares. The regulator also asked the stock exchanges to square off any existing futures & options position these entities have.

In all these counters, Sebi order showed these entities bought large quantities of the stock, created artificial volumes by trading among themselve, and once unsuspecting investors also bought these stocks, these entities dumped these scrips to make substantial profit. For example, a group of entities named by Sebi as Walmiki-Shah group, manipulated the share price of Well Pack Papers, in which another group, named here as Pabari-Parikh group, played a supporting role. "Their roles were reversed in the trading observed in the share (price) of Gemstone," the order pointed out.

Interestingly, in the 64-page order, Sebi has pointed out previous violations of market rules by several of the entities banned, thus showing some of these entities are regular market offenders. For example, Anand Marathe was found to have indulged in suspicious banking transactions and had a role in the Pyramid Saimira Theatre case. Marathe is already banned from the market by Sebi in the Pyramid Saimira case. None of the entities banned by Sebi are much known or big entities in the market, a dealer with a local brokerage pointed out.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-03/india-business/28368127_1_entities-circular-trading-market-regulator

Sebi bans 7 GDR issuers for price manipulation

Sebi bans 7 GDR issuers for price manipulation

BS Reporter / Mumbai Sep 22, 2011, 00:50 ISTThe Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has banned seven companies from raising fresh capital, after investigations revealed they manipulated share prices after issuing global depository receipts (GDRs). The regulator has also barred 10 entities, including a foreign institutional investor (FII) and sub-accounts, from dealing in securities market. The firms barred from issuing equity shares or any other instrument convertible into equities are Asahi Infrastructure & Projects, IKF Technologies, Avon Corporation, K Sera Sera, CAT Technologies, Maars Software International and Cals Refineries. All of them made at least one GDR issue during 2007-09.  According to a 44-page order issued by whole-time member Prashant Saran, a similar method was used by all these entities. The companies made a GDR issue that was subscribed even if the pricing was at a premium. Thereafter, within a short period of time, a set of common investors converted their GDRs into normal shares, again sold to a constant group of clients. The order says: “The various aspects of GDR issues, like the large size of the issue vis-à-vis existing size of the issuing company, unimpressive financials of the company, common initial investors, high proportion of cancellation of GDRs repeatedly by a set of FII/sub-accounts, sale in Indian exchanges, most of which are with a constant group of clients, and further off-loading by them, point towards an elaborate scheme to manipulate markets.” The findings reveal evidence of a pre-arrangement between parties to transactions at various stages of this complex scheme, it adds. The financial instruments regulator has asked the Enforcement Directorate to further look into the matter. Both the depositories — NSDL and CDSL — have been directed to freeze the beneficial owner accounts of all persons/entities named in the order. Some of the entities that form part of the common pool of investors indulging in this practice are European American Investment Bank Ag (FII), India Focus Cardinal Fund (sub-account), MAVI Investment (sub-account), KII Limited (sub-account) and Sophia Growth-A share Class of Somerset India Fund (sub-account). Other entities that have been barred are Basmati Securities Pvt Ltd, Oudh Finance & Investment Private Ltd, Alka India Ltd, SV Enterprises and JMP Securities Pvt Ltd (in capacity of a client to other intermediary or in proprietary account). According to the regulator, the beneficiaries of this manipulation are the GDR issuing companies that end up with a surge in net worth along with the lead manager who earns commissions for providing services and the sub-accounts that purchase GDRs at discounts in an illiquid foreign market and exit in the domestic market with the active connivance of related counterparties that generate volume and depth to attract domestic investors. The regulator has also barred (with immediate effect) Pan Asia Advisors Ltd and Arun Panchariya (Investment Manager of India Focus Cardinal Fund) from rendering services in connection with instruments that are defined as securities in the Indian market or in any way dealing with them.

SEBI bars 7 cos for listing-day price rigging!!!

SEBI BARS 7 COS FOR LISTING-DAY PRICE RIGGING

MUMBAI, DEC. 28: 

The Securities and Exchange Board of India on Wednesday issued a series of ad interim ex-parte orders against seven companies, their directors and their merchant bankers and lead managers to the issue in the matter of price manipulation on the listing day of the companies' initial public offerings.

The IPOs of Taksheel Solutions, RDB Rasyans, Onelife Capital Advisors, Brooks Laboratories, PG Electroplast, Tijaria Polypipes Ltd and Bharatiya Global Infomedia Ltd were investigated by the SEBI for price manipulation on listing day. The share prices of Taksheel Solutions, RDB Rasyans and Brooks Laboratories plunged by 62, 66 and 40 per cent respectively on listing days. Those of Brooks Laboratories and PG Electroplast surged 33 and 96 per cent.

SEBI found most of these companies had been involved in using inter-corporate deposits (ICDs) which were diverted to other entities who further funded the buying of shares on listing day. SEBI has barred the seven companies from raising capital from the securities market until further directions. The market regulator has also barred these companies and their directors from transacting in the securities market. The ICDs have been ordered to be called back, while the unspent IPO proceeds will have to be deposited in an interest-bearing escrow account with a scheduled commercial bank. The merchant bankers and lead managers have been prohibited from taking on new assignments till further orders.

Keywords: price manipulation, initial public offerings, listing-day price rigging, Taksheel Solutions, RDB Rasyans, Onelife Capital Advisors, Brooks Laboratories, PG Electroplast, Tijaria Polypipes Ltd, Bharatiya Global Infomedia Ltd, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/stock-markets/article2755381.ece?ref=wl_markets