Stock manipulation: Kumar Wire Cloth Manufacturing Company

22 July 2015

Moneylife

In just five months, the stock price of Kumar Wire Cloth shot up 858%. Prior to February 2015, there was, literally, no trading Kumar Wire Cloth Manufacturing Company (KWCMC) is supposedly into wire-mesh products for various industries such as pharmaceuticals, textile yarns, and filters, etc. With a market-capitalisation of about Rs3 crore, KWCMC generated revenues of Rs75 lakh for the year ended March 2015, a 20% drop compared to its revenue of Rs94 lakh for the year ended March 2014. In the March 2015 quarter, KWCMC reported a loss of Rs17 lakh. In the previous quarters, too, there was hardly any profit. Poor fundamentals, of course, are no deterrent for its stock price rise. From Rs1.16 on 11 February 2015, in just five months, the stock price shot up to Rs11.11 on 14 July 2015, up 858% or nine times! This humongous rally was possible as the stock hit its upper circuit of 2% in each trading session. In this five-month period, there were just one or two trades in a day. What makes it even more suspicious is that prior to February 2015, there was, literally, no trading. The stock was traded on only four days in the entire calendar year 2014. Such brazen manipulation, of course, does not attract the attention of the market regulator.