Bear cartels at play, says Financial Technologies

Alleges rumour mongering as shares fall over 14% intra-day

Financial Technologies, whose stock fell nine per cent on Friday, alleged weekend rumour-mongering by “unscrupulous elements” and laid the blame at the door of bear cartels who wish to see the company's share price falls.  

The stock closed at Rs 566.85 on the BSE on Friday, when the benchmark Sensex lost 0.29 per cent to 19,748.19. It had fallen as much as 14.59 per cent during the day before recovering some of its losses. The company has lost a fourth of its market capitalisation in around 10 days. It is now valued at Rs 2,611 crore.

“We request all shareholders/investors to be careful about some unscrupulous players in the market and bear cartels are working against the interest of the Company. This is detrimental to the interest of investors in general and of around 47,000 shareholders of FTIL in particular…We deny all such rumours and request all our shareholders to not to rely and don't be instrumental in spreading such rumours knowingly or unknowingly,” said the announcement.

The rumours are more often spread towards the end of the week, according to the exchange announcement by the company. “The series of rumours that are spread in the market have a pattern more particularly to spread on Friday and such rumours are spread by some unscrupulous elements with a design to depress the price of FTIL and damage its reputation,” said the company in an exchange announcement.

Financial Technologies provides technology solutions for use in financial markets and has stakes in multiple exchanges including in the commodity and currency space. Its businesses include the Multi Commodity Exchange and the National Spot Exchange in addition to the National Bulk Handling Corp and the Indian Energy Exchange. Rumours about the company have abounded since the middle of July, it added.  “We would like to inform you that since July 15, 2013, there have been many malicious rumours afloat on various media,” said the announcement. The stock has fallen over 25 per cent since.