The scrip, which was quoting at the Rs 34-37 levels during the first half of December, has nearly tripled in value to close at Rs 106 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The volumes transacted, on an average, are in the region of 12,000 shares per day.

A spokesperson for Citibank, when contacted, said she was not in a position to comment on the issue. Citibank has moved the entire equity research team out of Citicorp Securities and has moved its PC banking activities into this company. This means that the company will be able to reduce expenses by way of equity research activities and add to its revenues through PC banking activities.

Citicorp Securities has maintained a low profile ever since it was pulled up for its involvement in the securities scam in 1992. Citicorp Securities came into existenceafter a company named Havelock Leasing, belonging to the VB Desai group, was partly sold to Citibank and many stockmarket transactions were routed through this company.

Following the scam, the company had been concentrating on plain equity research. Only recently, the Rajan Raheja group, which has interests in real estate, pharmaceuticals and media, acquired a 15 per cent state in Citicorp Securities. However at that point of time, Citibank was not keen on hiking its shareholding in the finance company and decided to hold on to its 34 per cent stake.