PNB fraud: Gitanjali Gems share price soars 124% in 17 sessions; this is reason why

Gitanjali Gems share price, that had been consistently hitting lower circuits since Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi fraud surfaced in February, has finally reversed the falling trend. The stock more than doubled in the last 17 sessions on the back of a couple of bulk deals that happened during the same period.

The stock had hit its lifetime low of Rs 2.89 on May 3, following which the stock has been hitting the upper circuit repeatedly, rising 124 per cent in the past seventeen days to Rs 6.81 as of today. 

The trend reversal came in after a bulk deal in which Swapnil Mehta, one of the four promoters of the company, bought 10 lakh shares of the jewellery firm at Rs 2.8 on May 4. JM Global Equities Private Ltd bought 7 lakh shares the same day, while Morgan Stanley France SAS sold 6,67,164 shares of the company. 

However, in an another bulk deal on May 9, Swapnil Mehta sold 10 lakh shares at Rs 3.45. Morgan Stanley also sold 37,86,860 shares of Gitanjali Gems the same day. BP Fintrade Private bought 13,20,002 shares of the company. 

Meanwhile, promoters' holding in Gitanjali fell 3.28 per cent in the March quarter but FPI holding jumped by 2.18 per cent, data available with BSE showed. 

Central investigating agencies such as the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are looking into the over Rs 13,000-crore fraud at Punjab National Bank allegedly involving jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems. 

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Modi, Choksi and others are being investigated by the ED as well as other probe agencies after the fraud came to light this year following a complaint by the PNB that they allegedly cheated the bank to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED have registered two first information reports (FIRs) each in the case.

Both Modi and Choksi are said to have left the country before criminal cases could be lodged against them.