Shares of some of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group companies recovered partially today, a day after they had tumbled on market rumours that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could question or even arrest senior officials of the group in connection with the 2G telecom scam.
The rally today, which helped the Group recover Rs 1,743.8 crore of market capitalisation from yesterday's losses of Rs 11,520 crore, was mainly triggered by an announcement by its flagship infrastructure company Reliance Infrastructure to consider a share buyback on Monday. The announcement had come after stock market hours yesterday.
R-Infra's share prices rose 9.45 per cent today, to close at Rs 534.70. Reliance MediaWorks ( up five per cent to Rs 136.35), Reliance Communications (up 1.8 per cent to Rs 96.55) and Reliance Capital (up 1.5 per cent to Rs 419.20) also gained. However, Reliance Power's shares continued to remain in the red, with a loss of 0.4 per cent to Rs 112.65.
Gautam Doshi, managing director for the Reliance ADA Group, said in a conference call today that a series of completely false and baseless rumors against the group had been circulated yesterday by its corporate rivals and an illegal bear cartel. "In the past few weeks, this illegal bear cartel has destroyed market value of a staggering Rs 3,00,000 crore for the infrastructure sector, which is of the highest priority for the country. We have written to Sebi, the stock exchanges, and intelligence agencies to immediately investigate these concerted efforts to destabilise the capital markets, and create panic amongst investors," he said.
| MARKET CAPITALISATION REBOUNDS | |||||
| BSE price in Rs | % change | M-cap in Rs Cr | |||
| 9-Feb | 10-Feb | 9-Feb | 10-Feb | ||
| Reliance Infrastructure | 534.70 | 585.25 | 9.45 | 14298.95 | 15650.76 |
| Reliance MediaWorks | 129.90 | 136.35 | 4.97 | 599.10 | 628.85 |
| Reliance Comm | 94.85 | 96.55 | 1.79 | 19577.23 | 19928.11 |
| Reliance Capital | 412.90 | 419.20 | 1.53 | 10142.06 | 10296.81 |
| Reliance Power | 113.15 | 112.65 | -0.44 | 31739.48 | 31599.23 |
| Rel Broadcast N | 62.35 | 61.95 | -0.64 | 495.31 | 492.13 |
| Total M-cap | 76852.13 | 78595.89 | |||
| Difference in total M-cap between Feb 9 and 10 | 1,743.76 | ||||
On the report of a probe by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Doshi said, "Reliance Infra has not received any queries from ICAI on its accounts for any year. ICAI has simply asked for copies of audited balance sheets, which are already in the public domain, and have been circulated to over 1.5 million shareholders...ICAI has also desired to know why Reliance Infra haSpace dept issues draft for annulment of Antrix-Devas deals chosen to implement a policy of rotation of statutory auditors. It has been explained to ICAI that this policy, voluntarily adopted by Reliance Infra, is recommended by the ministry of corporate affairs," he added.
A Group statement said Reliance Infra would continue to extend all co-operation to ICAI and respond to any queries, if and when raised.
