FTIL shares drop on attachment of assets

The assets attached under the MPID Act include FT Tower, the company's headquarters in Andheri

The shares of Financial Technologies India (FTIL) dropped as much as 18 per cent on Wednesday after the economic offences wing (EoW) of Mumbai Police attached the company’s immovable assets worth Rs 2,000 crore in connection with the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) scam.

The stock, after touching an intra-day low of Rs 70.2, settled at Rs 80.9 a share, down Rs 4.45, or 5.2 per cent, from the previous close, on the BSE.

The assets attached under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act include FT Tower, the company’s headquarters in Andheri, and other properties and bank deposits.

FTIL on Wednesday challenged the action before the Bombay High Court. The matter will be heard next Monday.

FTIL shares are down 30 per cent this year compared to the seven per cent increase in the benchmark Sensex.

The proposal to merge NSEL with FTIL is seen as another reason for the weakness in its stock price. The ministry of corporate affairs on February 12 had passed an order directing the merger of NSEL with FTIL, pinning the latter with liabilities of the fraud-hit commodities bourse.

The NSEL payment crisis emerged after it suspended trading on July 31, 2013. The exchange could not settle the outstanding trades, triggering investigation by the police and regulators to find out whether the exchange had defrauded traders by not enforcing rules that required sufficient collateral to be set aside.