Wipro Falls Close To 5% After Over 2.6 Cr Shares Change Hands

Shares of Wipro Limited on Friday fell by as much as 4.76 percent to hit an intraday low of Rs 256.55 apiece on NSE from its previous day's close of Rs 268.85. This is the scrip's sharpest decline since 14 January. According to a BloombergQuint report, 2.67 crore shares or 0.4 percent of its stake that was worth over Rs 700 crore changed hands in a single block deal.

According to a Times of India report earlier today, the philanthropic arm of the IT giant, Azim Premji Trust, was to sell between 1.8 crore to 2.7 crore shares of Wipro Ltd on Friday at a price band of Rs 255.40 to Rs 260.78, a 3 to 5 percent discount from its closing price on Thursday. The stake was to be reportedly sold as block deals on BSE as well as NSE and the managers to the offer launched accelerated book-building process.

BloombergQuint also reported similarly, earlier today citing sources, that it was in the promoters' intention to sell 0.4 percent of stake in the company. A clarification from the company officials was sought on BSE, to which the company replied confirming that the stake was indeed sold by Azim Premji Trust with regard to a pre-cleared proposal made to sell the equity shares under the "the Company's Code of Conduct to regulate, monitor and report trading by Insiders and the SEBI Regulations, 2015."

It further said, "The Company granted pre-clearance for the aforesaid proposal on March 7, 2019. The Company processes requests for pre-clearance for trading by insiders in the usual course and there is no statutory requirement to report the same to the stock exchanges."

"On March 8, 2019, the Company has been informed that Azim Premji Trust has sold 2,66,66,667 equity shares of the Company on BSE. In this regard, the Company will make necessary disclosures to stock exchanges as required under the SEBI Insider Trading Regulations within the prescribed timelines," it added.