The shares of Infibeam Avenues Ltd plunged over 70 per cent on Friday ahead of its annual general body meeting, its lowest since November 9, 2016, after the circulation of a WhatsApp message alleging dodgy accounting practices of the company raised concerns among the traders.
The company, which was formerly known as Infibeam Incorporation, held its 8th annual general body meeting on Saturday.
According to reports, the investors lost about Rs 9,200 crore in market capitalisation. It is the steepest single-day percentage fall since Satyam Computers Services slumped 83 per cent on January 7, 2009 after the accounting scam broke out.
The WhatsApp message that is said to have triggered the record slump was attributed to Equirus Securities, a brokerage, which allegedly began circulating the information few months ago.
According to media reports, the message alleged that the company had given an interest-free and unsecured loan to be rapid over eight years to one of its units, which has negative net assets. The message also stated that the company has re-classified its co-founder as non-promoter but will continue to hold a large chunk of shares. However, Equirus Capital denied it had issued the note.
Following the record slump, the company released a voluntary clarification to the stock exchanges saying "there is no pending information or announcement from the company which may have a bearing on the price behaviour in the scrip."
The BSE Sensex and NSE’s Nifty 50 declined for the third day on Friday with Infibeam Avenues among the top losers after recording biggest intraday percentage fall.
The company had debuted on the stock exchanges on April 4, 2016. The e-commerce firm, which had raised Rs. 450 crore through its initial public offer (IPO) was the first e-commerce player in the country to make a stock market debut.