Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has found no insider trading in the shares of erstwhile Global Trust Bank (GTB) before its merger with Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC). This was stated on today (Dec 3, 2004) by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. A probe was ordered by SEBI following a spurt in trading in GTB shares just before the Reserve Bank announced a moratorium on July 25.

Chidambaram said the enquiry revealed that two overseas corporate bodies based in Mauritius -- Far East Investment Corporation and European Investment Ltd -- started selling their shares from June 1, five days after they became eligible to trade in shares. They together sold 95 lakh shares till July 19.

"The analysis did not reveal any common set of purchasers and sellers during the period," Chidambaram said.

During the post moratorium period, the purchasers and sellers were also widespread and no concentrated purchases could be observed with a few exceptions.

"No adverse findings could be observed on the above transactions," he said.

The two MPs -- Chander Kumar and Gurudas Dasgupta -- who had put up the question, alleged that insider trading by manipulators in GTB shares had led to a loss of Rs 36 crore (Rs 360 million) to 20,000 odd small investors.