Shares of GTL and GTL Infrastructure saw intense selling pressure on Monday taking the stocks down by 62.40% and 43.27% respectively. Market participants say that the sharp fall was following the sale of pledged shares by lenders as well as rumours that, Technology Infrastructure, the Mauritius based company, which holds over 23% stake in GTL Infrastructure, off loaded the stock.
GTL on Monday ended the day at R127.80 down by R212.10, while GTL Infrastructure closed the day at R16.85 falling by R12.85 and registering a new low on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). GTL in its clarification to the BSE said, ?In GTL, the promoters hold 52.71% of the equity capital of the company. The promoters have pledged only 12.85% of the equity capital of the company, which was already intimated to the stock exchanges, as part of our regular disclosures.?
It further added that neither the promoters nor the entities relating to promoters have sold any shares, including the shares that have been pledged.
On monday, traders unwound their positions at the derivative counters with open interest for GTL June futures falling by 19.4% while that of GTL Infra falling by 49.3%.
The market capitalisation of GTL and GTL Infra was at R1243 crore and R1616 crore respectively as at Monday prices.
Deven Choksey, managing director at KR Choksey Securities said, ?We saw some panic selling during the session. We think some investor must have sold aggressively, given such a sharp fall in share prices?.
He added that the news of offloading by Mauritius based funds precipitated the price fall.
GTL, a Global Group Enterprise, is a leading network services company while GTL Infrastructure is in the business of telecom towers in India with over 30,000 towers located across India.
On last Friday, shares of GTL and GTL Infrastructure had also seen a huge correction, falling by 16.48% and 7.33% respectively following reports that the company had cancelled its plans to raise about $ 300 million from institutional investors due to poor market conditions.
However GTL Infrastructure clarified on Monday saying, ?The company has never launched any road show for the above said issue. We believe that the present market conditions, policy clarity on telecom sector and global market sentiments are not favorable for the issue at this stage. We would like to inform you that the company is in highly capital intensive business and it will raise funds at appropriate times. We will keep the stock exchanges updated of any developments on this matter.?
In the current calendar year, GTL and GTL Infrastructure have fallen 69.34% and 60.58% respectively as against 14.6% fall for Sensex.