Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Satyam frauds Sensex of 7%, Nifty of 6%

MUMBAI: Indian equities ended sharply lower Wednesday as investors’ dumped realty and IT stocks after B Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Invest for long term Services made startling confessions of fraudulence in company’s books.

Earlier in the day, Raju tendered his resignation as chairman admitting to gross manipulation of company accounts.

Satyam’s balance sheet as on Sep 30, 2008, carries inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore (as against Rs 5,361 reflected in the books). Further, it carries an accrued interest of Rs 376 crore which is non existent, and understated liability of Rs 1,230 crore on account of funds arranged by Raju. It also has over stated debtors position of Rs 490 crore (as against Rs 2,651 crore in the books).

Following the announcement, DSP Merrill Lynch terminated its engagement with the company.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex which fell to a low of 9,510.15 earlier in the day, closed at 9580.31, down 755.62 points or 7.31 per cent. The index touched an intra-day high of 10469.72.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended at 2918, down 6.26 per cent or 194.80 points. The index touched an intra-day low of 2888.20 and a high of 3147.20.

Selling was also seen in second rung stocks. BSE Midcap Index 7.06 per cent and BSE Smallcap fell 6.20 per cent.

Satyam Computers (-77.16%), Jaiprakash Associates (-29.70%), Reliance Communications (-17.42%), DLF (-17.08%) and Reliance Infrastructure (-13.25%) were the top Sensex losers.

Hindustan Unilever (1.44%), Infosys Technologies (1.40%), Maruti Suzuki (1.34%) and Wipro (0.51%) were the only Sensex gainers.

Market breadth was negative on the BSE with 2124 losers and 364 gainers.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Satyam_fraud_Sensex_dips_7_Nifty_off_6/articleshow/3947248.cms

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