Ccd Meeting Postponed

The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) meeting scheduled for today was postponed once again. The meet was put off due to the absence of the prime minister and other senior ministers and will be rescheduled for later this week, said senior officials in the disinvestment department.

The CCD will take a final decision on what is to be done with the CMC bid on Friday. "It might decide to go ahead with the sale or it might postpone the sale pending completion of the investigation or even order scrapping the entire process," said Pradip Baijal, Secretary, Department of Disinvestment (DoD).

The DoD today sent another letter to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) asking them to conduct an investigation 'at the earliest possible' into share price rigging in the company.

Meanwhile share prices of Computer Maintanance Corporation (CMC) fell sharply today also amidst fears that the government may scrap the disinvestment process in CMC. The scrip closed at Rs 201.90 on the NSE, down from Rs 252 per share on Monday.

Volume of trade was over 6,500. Panic sales have seen prices dropping by 35 per cent since Monday.

After rising sharply on Friday (the day the financial bids for CMC were received) to Rs 309 per share, share prices have fallen to Rs 201.90 on Wednesday. This level is however close to the approximately Rs 200 price per share bid by Tata Consultancy Services, the sole bidder for CMC.

"CMC share prices, which have been consistently outperforming other IT stocks since December 2000, are now coming closer to a more realistic level," says Baijal.

Given the general trend of IT stocks, the company's scrip should have been valued at around or even below Rs 100 per share.