YES Bank shares fall 4% intraday on alleged Sebi findings

Shares of YES Bank fell nearly 4% on Thursday after a media report suggesting that market regulator Sebi had found the bank violated rules, elicited a response from the bank.

A report in Mint newspaper, said that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had found reason enough to file adjudication proceedings against the bank and its investment bankers over the recent failed $1-billion QIP issue.

YES Bank's shares fell to a low of Rs 1,229 apiece, down 3.9% from the previous close of Rs 1,279 a share.

At 1034 hours, YES Bank's shares were trading at Rs 1,257.25, down 1.70% from previous day's close.

The QIP was launched by YES Bank on September 7, only to withdraw it a day later once its shares started falling. The bank said at the time that the new QIP guidelines were misinterpreted.

Sebi soon launched a probe into the QIP, and according to the aforementioned Mint report, "found that YES Bank had violated key norms of the listing obligations and disclosure rules (LODR) relating to misrepresentation of facts and adequate disclosure before it proceeded with the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP)". The report quoted sources on the condition of anonymity.

YES Bank notified the BSE that it had responded to a query received from the newspaper, saying that "as a matter of policy, YES Bank doesn't comment on such speculative stories."

Yes Bank