Capital markets regulator SEBI on Friday summoned the compliance officer of Gitanjali Gems for violation of listing obligations and disclosure requirement (LODR) norms, a source told BusinessLine . The source also said that SEBI was studying data to ascertain if there was any angle of insider trading in PNB shares as the counter saw a huge surge in options contracts open interest ahead of the bank’s announcement of fraud to the exchanges.
SEBI is analysing the trading pattern in Gitanjali Gems, promoted by Mehul Choksey, and those companies associated with Nirav Modi.
In 2013, the share price of Gitanjali Gems had crashed by 60 per cent in a few weeks as the shares kept as collateral were sold by the clearing corporation of the stock exchange to recover dues from the traders who had kept Gitanjali Gems as margin. PNB, the data show that its share price soared 15 per cent till January 24 even when there was no meaningful change in derivative open interest. On January 25, PNB detected the fraud when Nirav Modi’s company approached it for a renewal of its loan.
On the same day, PNB shares fell by a sharp 8 per cent. But before the fall the derivative ‘put’ option contract of PNB saw a surge of 1,753 per cent on January 24. The ‘put’ open interest rose from ₹48.8 lakh to ₹8.5 crore, indicating a huge build-up of short positions. On January 29, PNB registered a complaint with the CBI about fraudulent transactions involving Nirav Modi’s company. Following this, the February F&O expiry put options of PNB saw a 34 per cent jump in total open positions.
The initial complaint indicated an amount of ₹280 crore but on February 14, PNB informed the exchanges that the extent of the fraud could amount to ₹11,600 crore, which resulted in the crash of the PNB share. The PNB share has fallen by more than 30 per cent in just three trading sessions this week.