ICICI Bank - no manipulative trading

Market regulator SEBI on Thursday said it did not find evidence of manipulative trading in shares of ICICI Bank, which had demanded a probe by the watchdog after its scrip came under heavy selling pressure in September.

"While SEBI continues its surveillance of the stock exchange trading in various securities, SEBI did not find evidence of manipulative trading in ICICI Bank shares during the period (September 8 to October 10)," the market regulator said in a statement here.

A spokesperson of ICICI Bank, which had approached the regulator seeking a probe into what they called "beating down" of their shares by vested elements, declined to comment.

SEBI said by and large, the trading patterns are consistent with the shareholding pattern of ICICI with predominant holdings by FIIs, general buying and selling behaviour by FIIs and the broad movements of the market during this period.

The regulator analysed the trading pattern of ICICI Bank shares from September 8 to October 10 this year following the complaint by the country's largest private sector bank.

ICICI Bank MD and CEO K V Kamath had earlier demanded a probe by SEBI, alleging conspiracy by market manipulators to destbilise the bank's shares through rumours.

SEBI said prices of ICICI Bank shares fell by 49.52 per cent from Rs 720.45 on September 8 to Rs 363.65 on October 10 this year.

In its analysis, SEBI said none of the major sellers were observed to be placing orders successively at lower price. "There was no pattern observed regarding placement of successive orders at lower price by sellers to hammer down the price. There was no pattern observed of booking intra-day profits by major clients or brokers."