FTIL jumps as High Court grants bail to Jignesh Shah

Financial Technologies (India) rose 4.36% to Rs 279 at 14:00 IST on BSE after the Bombay High Court on Friday, 22 August 2014, granted bail to the company's promoter, Jignesh Shah.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 185.80 points, or 0.70%, to 26,605.35.

On BSE, so far 4.57 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 3.31 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 280.70 and a low of Rs 270 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 403.60 on 10 March 2014. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 102.05 on 30 August 2013.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 22 August 2014, falling 11.56% compared with 1.51% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had, however, outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 9.23% as against Sensex's 8.39% rise.

The small-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 9.22 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

The Bombay High Court on Friday, 22 August 2014, granted bail to Jignesh Shah, promoter of Financial Technologies (India) (FTIL), who has spent more than 100 days in custody after being arrested in connection with the Rs 5574.35 crore fraud at the National Spot Exchange (NSEL). The court granted Shah bail on cash surety of Rs 5 lakh and ordered him to appear before the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police twice a week, on every Monday and Thursday.

Shah, whose FTIL holds a 99.99% stake in NSEL, was arrested by EOW of Mumbai Police on 7 May 2014 in connection with the fraud at NSEL, which has affected his other businesses. EOW has charged Shah with criminal misappropriation, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

Shah's lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani has reportedly argued in court that Shah had no knowledge of the crisis, saying it was perpetrated by a clutch of NSEL employees and brokers, including Anjani Sinha, former chief executive of the commodity exchange.

The crisis at NSEL came to light on 31 July 2013 when the exchange suspended trading in all but its e-series contracts. These, too, were suspended a week later. The suspension may have been prompted by an instruction from the ministry of consumer affairs to the exchange asking it not to offer futures contracts. A spot exchange is not supposed to do so, but NSEL was doing that. NSEL tried to implement the change, but because its appeal was to investors and members who were not interested in spot trades, it eventually had to suspend all trading.

Subsequent investigations have highlighted the possibility of fraud and, according to the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the involvement of promoters. On 14 August 2013, NSEL proposed a payout plan, but it has been unable to stick to the schedule and has not made a single successful payout ever since.

FMC in its order dated 17 December 2013 said that FTIL, the promoter and anchor shareholder holding 26% of the paid-up capital of the commodity exchange MCX, is not 'fit and proper person' to continue to be a shareholder of 2% or more of the paid-up equity capital of MCX as prescribed under the guidelines issued by the Government of India (GoI) for capital structure of commodity exchanges post 5-years of operation.

FTIL's net profit rose 57.93% to Rs 128.24 crore on 27.43% increase in total income to Rs 216.05 crore in Q1 June 2014 over Q1 June 2013.

FTIL is among the global leaders in offering technology IP (Intellectual Property) and domain expertise to create and trade on next generation financial markets. It is a global leader in creating and operating next-generation tech centric financial exchanges.

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