The bank also sent a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange saying, "There are baseless rumours circulating in the market through SMS and emails about a lawsuit filed against ICICI Bank in the US. The bank categorically denies any such lawsuit."
The Economic Offences Wing has detained two city-based brokers. Police officials involved in the probe refused to give details.
Sources said the rumour initially appeared on a blog, owned by a Bangalore-based resident, and was sent around by some brokers. ICICI Bank officials said they had tracked down individual rumours and there was a suspicion that they were initiated by persons who sought to gain from a fall in the bank's share price.
One of the mails was forwarded by an individual to contacts in his Google group. The bank has obtained details of the individual, who described himself as an investor and said his information was obtained from a website.
Another chain of emails was traced to a vice-president of a broking firm, who again claimed that his information was based on comments made on a blog. Banks officials said they were investigating the root of the rumours.
One of the early rumour sources was a comment on a blog which said, ''Big US stock broking company filed $1-billion suit against ICICI Bank, its US banking arm, big fall for ICICI Bank in just two days, even unexpected 20-30 per cent fall like the Satyam fall last year.'' The poster claimed that the news came from a big hedge fund manager.
By noon, television channels were flashing the rumours. Soon thereafter, the bank's stock price tanked from Rs881 to Rs850 in a matter of 18 minutes. Being an index stock, the fall in the bank's share price also had an impact on the Sensex.
SEBI is expected to look into the trades to see if anyone has made substantial gains as a result of the rumours. The bank will also share with the regulator the details of the sources of rumour mongering.
This is not the first time that ICICI Bank has fallen victim to rumour mongering. The first time was in April 2003 when rumours that the bank was facing a liquidity problem led to mass withdrawals in Gujarat.
Although the bank was not facing any liquidity crunch, the higher-than-usual withdrawals forced the bank to ship extra currency to its ATMs.
The second time the bank had to get into crisis management mode was immediately after the Lehman Brothers collapse. A series of rumours, beginning with one about the bank's exposure to Lehman saw depositors queuing outside the bank's ATMs across the country (See: RBI allays fears over ICICI Bank's finances)
One cannot help speculating why ICICI bank is being particularly targeted for such attacks, but answers are not immediately forthcoming.
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