Sebi bars promoters of four firms including Ackruti,Welspun

Cracking the whip on “fraudulent and unfair trade practices”,the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has barred the promoters and promoter-related entities of Murli Industries Limited ,realty firm Ackruti City Limited ,Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Limited (now Welspun Corp Limited ) and Brushman India Limited from dealing in the securities of their own companies and their listed group companies till further directions. The regulator also prohibited businessman Sanjay Dangi and his group entities from dealing in any securities on charges of manipulation of share prices of the four companies. It has also asked stock brokers Sanchay Fincom,Sanchay Finvest and Ashika Stock Broking not to buy,sell or deal in the securities in their own/proprietary account in any manner till further directions. “They are further directed not to take/deal with fresh/new clients with immediate effect until further orders,” Sebi said in its order. Sebi said that all four firms had raised funds through a qualified institutional placement or foreign currency convertible bonds during 2007-2009 and the Dangi Group was observed to be trading substantially in the shares of these firms around the same period. Sebi also asked the stock exchanges to enable closing off any open positions in the futures and options segment and direucted that these firms should not take any fresh positions. “It emerged in the preliminary examination that Ackruti,Brushman and Welspun had raised funds through QIP/FCCBs during the period 2007-2009 and the Dangi group had been observed to be trading substantially in the shares of these companies around the same period. In addition,the entities related to promoter/promoter group of the identified companies — Welspun and Ackruti — were also trading in the shares of their respective companies,” Sebi said. “The link between the Dangi Group entities and Ashika group on the one hand and Ackruti Group including its promoters on the other is established through evidence of holdings of the latter in entities of Dangi Group. The trading in the shares of Ackruti takes on a different dimension after Dangi group entities start trading in them,” Sebi said. There are higher volumes and multifold increase in price. The share price increased from Rs 400 to Rs 1,200 levels in the first period and in the second that was examined above from Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 and moved back to Rs 500 levels only on account of regulatory intervention of stock exchanges.