ADAG blames rivals, bear cartel for stock plunge

New Delhi, Feb 10 (PTI) Hit hard by heavy plunge in itsgroup stocks, Anil Ambani group today blamed ''corporaterivals'' and a cartel of market manipulators for causing panicamong investors and sought an immediate probe into the matter.

Seeking to assuage concerns of its over 11 millioninvestors, the group also said it has been a victim of theillegal bear cartel that destroyed market value of astaggering over Rs 3,00,000 crore for the infrastructuresector in past few weeks.

Terming the infrastructure sector as "the highestpriority for the country," the group MD Gautam Doshi said in aconference call that ADAG has sought immediate probe into thematter.

"We have written to SEBI, the stock exchanges, andintelligence agencies to immediately investigate theseconcerted efforts to destabilise the capital markets, andcreate panic amongst investors," he said.

The comments came a day after the group stocks fell by upto 19 per cent, causing a market value loss of over Rs 11,000crore in a single day.

The group stocks, however, today bounced back, defyingthe overall bearish sentiment in the broader market and surgedby up to 11 per cent in early trade.

Reliance Infrastructure, which shed 25.14 per cent inyesterday''s session, shot up by 10.97 per cent this morning.

Another major gainer from the Anil Ambani camp wasReliance Communications, which advanced by 7.22 per cent to anearly peak of Rs 101.70, after hitting a record low of Rs 90.

80 yesterday.

Shares of Reliance Broadcast Network also went up by 5.

37 per cent, while Reliance Capital jumped by 10.51 per cent,Reliance MediaWorks by 9.31 per cent and Reliance Power by 5.

3 per cent today.

Speaking about yesterday''s sharp plunge, Doshi said: "Aseries of completely false and baseless rumors against ourGroup have been circulated yesterday by our corporate rivalsand an illegal bear cartel."

"The market regulatory authorities are equipped with themost advanced electronic surveillance systems, and we areconfident this deliberate pattern of price hammering andmanipulation will quickly be exposed," he said.

Doshi also said the group companies, Reliance Infra andRNRL, as well as their statutory auditors, have not receivedany notice from auditing regulator ICAI with regard to theconsent settlement reached by the two companies with Sebi.

However, he added that the ICAI had "simply asked forcopies of audited Balance Sheets, which are already in thepublic domain, and have been circulated to over 1.5 millionshareholders."

"ICAI has also desired to know why Reliance Infra haschosen to implement a policy of rotation of statutoryauditors," Doshi said. .