UPL stock falls 15% on report of whistleblower claim about financial fraud

UPL shares slipped over 15% today after amid a report that a whistleblower claimed promoters of the company had siphoned off money. Stock of UPL touched an intraday low of Rs 416.05, falling up to 15.49% on BSE. The stock opened with a loss of 2.52% at Rs 479.90 against previous close of Rs 492.30.

UPL share is trading lower than 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages. The share has lost 23% in one year and fallen 26.64% since the beginning of this year. At 1: 30 pm, the share fell 12.87% or Rs 63.35 to Rs 429 on BSE.

Market cap of the firm fell to Rs 32,777 crore.

FIIs have reduced holdings from 40.56% to 37.15% in September quarter. Mutual Funds have raised holdings from 4.54% to 5.2% in September  quarter. However, promoter holding remained unchanged at 27.88% as on Sep 2020 quarter.

According to report in The Economic Times, a whistleblower claimed promoters of the company had siphoned off mone UPL CEO Jai Shroff, in a clarification to CNBC-TV18, said the company's board had not received any whistleblower complaint.

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"There was a complaint from my estranged wife in 2016 about the residence that I live in and the matter was put to rest in 2017," said Shroff. The ET report said that UPL inked rent deals with a shell company owned by its employees and paid crores of rupees in rent for properties held by the latter, which was earlier owned by UPL chief Shroff himself.

Meanwhile, Sensex traded 185 points lower at 45,921 and Nifty fell 59 points to 13,469 in early trade. On Wednesday, Sensex ended 494 points higher at 46,103 and Nifty closed 136 points higher at 13,529.

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