CarTrade clarifies SEBI over upsurge in trades

Automobile classifieds portal CarTrade has made a clarification to the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for the sudden increase in the volume of the shares traded for CarTrade Tech Limited on Tuesday.

Automobile classifieds platform CarTrade has responded to the letter sent by the market regulator SEBI that sought clarification on a sudden surge in share trade earlier this week.

On June 5, 2023, the number of shares traded on the exchange for CarTrade saw a sudden jump of 19.7X, consequently, the prices of stocks went up by 15.5% to Rs 487.60 in a day.

Taking cognizance, the Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI) sent a letter to the company over the unusual jump in the volume and number of trades executed on Monday.

CarTrade in its clarification stated,“There is no announcement to be made by the Company which, in our opinion, may have a bearing on the volume behavior in scrip of the Company and which is required to be disclosed under Regulation 30 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.”

The company further said that it “has in the past made timely disclosure under Regulation 30 of the Listing Regulations.”

Founded in 2009, Cartrade has an auction model for old vehicles and an online portal for generating leads for new cars. It owns and runs five brands including Carwale, Bikewale, CarTrade, Shriram Automall, and Adroit Auto. The company made a debut on stock exchange in August 2021 at Rs 1,599.8 per share with a 100% secondary offering but its value fell 70.4% to currently stand at Rs 473.1.

Meanwhile, CarTarde had managed to put out decent numbers in the last fiscal year as it posted a profit of Rs 40.43 crore in FY23 as compared to Rs 121.35 crore loss in FY22. Its revenue also grew 16.3% to Rs 363.73 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2023.