BSE denies favouritism towards Anil Ambani

Discounting suggestions of favouritism to Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Communications, the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday said no rule was overlooked while deciding to include the company in the Sensex - the elite index of top 30 companies - in place of Tata Power.

While a senior official of BSE said that criteria of a new company could not be applied on a entity, demerged from already listed company, the spokesperson for the leading bourse Kalyan Bose said no rule was overlooked.

"The committee looking after the changes in index constituents deliberated over every issue before taking a decision to this effect. The committee is well within its rights to take such a decision," Bose told PTI when asked about reports of deviation made for RCoVL, the second Anil D Ambani Group company after Reliance Energy to enter the 30- scrip index.

As per the BSE rules on index constituents, for inclusion of any company, its share should have traded on each and every trading day for at least six months besides other quantitative and qualitative criteria.

The BSE had announced on Sunday that RCoVL, listed on March 6, would replace Tata Power in the 30-share barometer index with effect from June 12.

On Tuesday, the first trading day after the announcement, RCoVL scrip touched a high of Rs 339, reflecting an increase of nearly six per cent over the previous closing.

A BSE official quoted from the rule, which stipulated that the Committee could consider "exceptional" circumstances when looking at the listing history of the company and said that RCoVL was created from demerger of Reliance Industries.

Bose added that the decision to include RCoVL was taken at a regular two-day meeting of the listing committee and no further meeting was scheduled to take place to review the decision, despite reports about the stock failing to meet most of the quantitative selection criteria.