PNB stocks slump for second straight day after fraud shock; Plunges almost 12 pc

Shares of PNB on Thursday continued to drop for a second straight day by closing almost 12% lower after a USD 1.8 billion fraud was detected in one of its branches in Mumbai.

The trading volumes in PNB shares spiked remarkably high level. At the closing on Thursday’s trades, more than 19.4 crore shares exchanged hands on NSE and BSE counters with about 17.7 crore shares on NSE alone.

Stocks of jewellery companies such as Gitanjali Gems and PC Jewellers too declined after authorities blamed billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi for the fraud.

Stocks of Gitanjali Gems plummeted almost 20 percent, while Stocks of PC Jewellers fell 5.31 percent on the BSE.

On Thursday, PNB shares lost about 12.89 percent to conclude at 127.05 on NSE while the shares settled 11.97 percent down at Rs 128.35 on BSE.

Idea Cellular issue equity shares worth up to Rs 3,500 crore

Idea Cellular Ltd’s has approved the issuance of equity shares by way of qualified institutional placement (QIP) to eligible investors, for an amount not exceeding Rs 3,500 crore, the company said to the stock exchanges on Wednesday. The issuance modalities will be in accordance with the SEBI regulations.

Idea Cellular today completed the allotment of 32,66,33,165 equity shares to the Aditya Birla Group entities, at an issue price of Rs 99.50/share aggregating to Rs 3,250 crore.

Meanwhile, the promoters of the company, Birla TMT, Elaine Investments, Oriana Investments have already invested Rs. 3250 crore to strengthen its balance sheet. Following this equity infusion by Idea Cellular’s promoters, their stake in Idea Cellular will go up at 47.2 percent from the 42.42.

Shares of Idea Cellular was trading up 1.36% at Rs. 85.65 on NSE post lunch hours of trading.

Tata steel and Wipro bag ‘most Ethical Company Award’

Tata Steel Ltd and Wipro Limited are the two Indian companies that have been chosen among 135 world's most ethical companies for 2018 by the Ethisphere Institute, a leading international organization dedicated to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, a press release has said.

The 135 companies dedicated to "defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices" have been selected from 23 countries across 57 industries, Ethisphere Institute said in its statement on Monday.

A total of 135 companies from 23 countries are being recognized in 2018, the release said.  It added that the award will be bestowed on March 13. Amazingly, Tata Steel Limited has been honored by Ethisphere Institute USA five times earlier, in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 & 2017, in the Metals, Minerals and Mining grouping.

It seems that Tata Steel Limited and Wipro Limited will be impacted by the investors with this dignity in the trading days ahead.  However, the shares of Tata Steel and Wipro on Monday spiked 4.15% and 4.05% of Rs. 713.70 and 289.05 respectively on National Stock Exchange.