MUMBAI: News of an interim chief at ICICI Bank should have calmed investors’ nerves, but the private lender seems to have no such luck.
Shares of ICICI Bank continued to be battered, with the scrip plunging 2.8 per cent on BSE Thursday to close at Rs 271.15.
In fact, its shares were down more than 11 per cent in the past four trading sessions, slicing off a neat Rs 19,066 crore in market capitalisation.
Analysts are sceptical about the lenders accounting practices, which according to a whistleblower were inflated to a certain extent, at least in 31 accounts.
The bank, in a disclosure to the bourses last Friday, denied the allegations, while news reports suggest that the banking regulator has initiated a fresh probe into the bank following the whistleblower complaint.
On Thursday, as per Bloomberg data, about 4.69 million ICICI Bank shares have changed hands in two block deals, though details of the buyers and sellers remain unknown.
Markets regulator SEBI is also believed to have initiated adjudication proceedings against the bank and its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar, who is on a forced vacation till the completion of an internal probe headed by former Justice B N Srikrishna.