Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) stock on Friday came under selling pressure as one of the company’s employees was reportedly detained by the Delhi police for further interrogation. The stock closed with a loss of 3.12 per cent at Rs. 873.25.
“It [RIL stock plunging] was bound to happen. Some investors panicked after the company’s name surfaced during interrogation and subsequent detention of an employee,” said a stock analyst asking not to be named. Reliance officials did not offer any additional comment on Friday.
Essar Oil stock closed with a minor gain of 0.09 per cent at Rs. 112.15. Essar officials confirmed that one of their colleagues was questioned by the sleuths.
As more people were arrested in the corporate espionage case allegedly involving big corporates, India Inc. preferred silence till the accused were proved guilty. However, their discomfort was clearly evident.
“It is premature to comment. The whole picture is not clear. We don’t know how important those files are and what the truth is,” said a top corporate bigwig who is in the board of several companies.
Some came out to defend the action. “Corporate lobbying is natural when too much power is vested with central policy makers. It [accessing classified information] has been happening for years here. The other side [government] is also to be blamed. To end this, we must make our policies transparent like the e-auctioning of coal mines and nobody would go to steal files,” said a large investor in many companies.
All spoke on the condition of anonymity and several representatives of trade bodies declined to comment.
