PNB Fraud: UCO Bank hits 52-week low on exposure to Nirav Modi

The shares of UCO Bank nosedived by about 11 per cent during early trade on Monday as the bank revealed its exposure to the PNB fraud case, which is being probed by various regulatory agencies. Among other significant banks, SBI has also disclosed its exposure to the fraud.

State-owned UCO Bank has an exposure to US$411.82 million to the fraudulent transactions that took place at the Punjab National Bank. The bank’s Hong Kong branch had granted loans on the back of letters of credit issued by PNB and was 'fully confident' of receiving the payments.

India’s second largest bank PNB uncovered fraudulent transactions worth US$1.8 billion at its Mumbai branch which benefited billionaire jewellers, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Gems and helped them siphon funds to many shell companies.

Following the disclosure of UCO Bank, its stocks plunged to its 52-week low of Rs. 25.02 per share, down by 11 per cent and managed to touch an intraday high of Rs. 27.10 per share on BSE on Monday. At 10:36 hours IST, the stock was trading at Rs. 26.30 per share, down by 7.39 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 33,892.69 level, lower by 0.35 per cent and NSE Nifty50 was trading at 10,406.35 level, lower by 0.44 per cent, respectively.