Shares of Multi Commodities Exchange and Financial Technologies today slumped as much as 9.4 per cent in the morning trade after promoter Jignesh Shah and former MCX head Shreekant Javalgekar were arrested in connection with the ₹5,600-crore National Spot Exchange (NSEL) case.

Reacting to this, shares of both FTIL and MCX opened the day on a lower note.

MCX stocks lost 9.38 per cent to ₹483.55 at the BSE, while FTIL shares tanked 5 per cent to ₹276.70 – its lower trading permissible limit for the day.

“Financial Technologies chief Jignesh Shah and former managing director and chief executive of MCX Shreekant Javalgekar were arrested in the NSEL case. Both are also members of the board of directors of NSEL and members of the spot exchange’s audit committee,” Rajvardhan Sinha, chief of the Economic Offence Wing of Mumbai Police, had said last evening.

Both are to be produced before the court today, Sinha had said, adding that the total number of arrested persons in the case is now 11. NSEL chief executive Ajnani Sinha had been arrested on October 17 last year.

The FT Group owns 99.99 percent stake in the now crippled commodities spot exchange which was ordered to be closed by the Government on July 31 last year following a payment crisis.

The arrests came seven months after an FIR was registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of Mumbai police against Shah (promoter-director of the NSEL) and others on charges of cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy to make quick profit.

Shah’s arrest is likely to cripple the FTIL and delay its plan to get its 26 percent stake in the country’s largest commodities exchange reduced to 2 per cent.

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