ICICI Bank shares trade higher despite SEBI’s administrative warning

Shares of the private sector lender ICICI Bank after initial losses traded in the green after the bank in an exchange filing on Thursday said that the market watchdog SEBI has issued an administrative warning to it for its outreach activities around the delisting of ICICI Securities.

The stock after opening with a cut of 0.8 per cent at Rs 1102.15 per share on the BSE soon trimmed its losses and at the last count was down by just 0.11 per cent at Rs 1109.50.

Further, the lender said that the development will not result in any impact on the financial, operations or other activities of the bank.

On the SEBI’s query, ICICI Bank submitted that the outreach programme was undertaken with the objective of maximising participation in the voting process. • The outreach was done in face of a 'concerted campaign' on social media by some sophisticated shareholders of ICICI Securities against the scheme, added the lender.

Earlier in March, the broking and investment banking entity ICICI Securities received around 72 per cent of the minority shareholders’ vote in favour of the company’s delisting.

Upon the delisting, the broking arm will once again merge into its biggest shareholder ICICI Bank and become its fully-owned subsidiary.

The stock will also gain focus as the RBI’s policy rate decision will also be unveiled soon.