Is it another instance of market manipulation or a bear game gone terribly wrong? Akruti City, a Mumbai-headquartered real estate developer promoted by Hemant Shah, continued to surge and shot up by another 10.7 per cent to Rs 2,227.50, taking its gain for the week to 107 per cent. With this, shares of the realty company — which was downgraded by rating firm Crisil on Thursday — have gained a whopping 305 per cent since January 15 this year, making it the second largest realty company in terms of market capitalisation after DLF but ahead of Unitech.

The sharp rise in Akruti at a time when other realty companies were facing intense heat on the stock market has surprised marketmen. “This is a bear game which has gone terribly wrong. There was a clutch of operators who went short on the stock anticipating the price to fall but when it did not happen they were trapped in the futures segment and went to buy shares from the open market. Since the company is very tightly held and has very few shares floating in the market, the operators had to buy them at a very high premium,” said a market source.

It's learnt that an operator who owns around 3 per cent equity in the company is involved in the game that panned out in the last 10 days. “There are 5 other brokers from Mumbai and Kolkata who are being interrogated by the Sebi for their involvement in the Akruti mess. It is expected that these operators who had got into short selling at Rs 50 crore lost around Rs 200 crore,” said a broker on the condition of anonymity. When contacted, Sebi officials were not available for comments. Sources said the Sebi and the stock exchanges have initiated a probe into the share spurt.

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