Wipro H1 Net Vaults 79% To Rs 119 Crore

For the past three years, surveillance at the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) was confined to the secondary markets. Investigations pertaining to frauds during the primary market boom of 1994 and thereafter were completed and action was taken against several such manipulators. But the primary market was dead and the investor was least concerned about the ill-effects of manipulation on the primary market. And hence the results of these investigations were confined to the background.

Cut to 1999 and the primary markets are booming again. Driven by the knowledge based information technology sector, it is basking in the glory of resurrection. But manipulators are putting on their thinking caps again.

 

So you see some private placement prospectus' being circulated around like a public issue to solicit subscriptions from gullible investors. You also see large numbers of multiple accounts being opened, again a trend which is as old as the primary markets are in the country but is showing up once again.

A classic example of this has been in the case of the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd issue, where merchant bankers say, a spate of multiple accounts with the same bank account number were received. As a result very few genuine applications were received and this was reflected in the poor 35 per cent allotment in demat mode even though the stock is entirely in demat tra