As directed by the joint parliamentary committee, Sebi had scrutinised 200 shares suspected to have indulged in insider trading and price manipulation, out of which it had shortlisted 60. The list also includes names of those multinational companies, which in the last six months or so have announced buy-back of their shares.

It is an impressive list, with big names in the corporate world - Ranbaxy, Carrier Aircon, VSNL, Baja Auto, Pentamedia Graphics, Lupin Laboratories, Otis Elevators, Global Telesystems, ICICI Bank, Wartsila India and Polaris - figuring in it. The others include Jaiprakash Industries, VST Industries, Hinduja TMT, Flex Industries, Great Eastern Shipping, American Remedies, PSI Data Systems, Jindal Iron & Steel Company, Global Trust Bank, Shyam Telecom and Jagsonpal Pharma.

It is clear that Sebi is bent upon investigating price movements of shares of companies, which were involved in mergers and acquisitions. Some such cases are:
1) ICICI Bank, which had acquired Bank of Madura.
2) The sparsely traded Bank of Madura scrip, which had attracted huge volumes and had moved up to cross the Rs 150-mark before its merger with ICICI Bank.
3) The acquisition of American Remedies by Dr Reddys Laboratories.
4) Indian Rayons acquisition of PSI Data System, whose scrip had zoomed up to cross the Rs 150-mark from sub-100 levels in a period when the entire IT stocks were taking a severe bear hammering.