Shares of tyre companies slipped by up to 6 per cent on the BSE in Thursday's intra-day trade after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) alleged cartelisation and imposed penalty on select companies.
The CCI had passed a final order against five Tyre companies namely Apollo Tyres, MRF, CEAT, JK Tyre & Birla Tyres and the tyre association i.e. Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association for indulging in cartelisation by acting in concert to increase the prices of cross ply/bias tyres variants sold by each of them in the replacement market and to limit and control production and supply in the said market.
The CCI on Wednesday said Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by tyre companies wherein they had challenged the regulator's order imposing penalties on them for anti-competitive practices.
In August 2018, the watchdog had imposed a total fine of more than Rs 1,788 crore on Apollo Tyres, MRF, CEAT, Birla Tyres, JK Tyre and Industries and Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), the PTI reported. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT
At 10:06 am, MRF and Apllo Tyres erased their respective intra-day loss and traded flat. The remaining three stocks traded lower in the range of 1 per cent to 2 per cent on the BSE, as compared to 0.43 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex.
Among individual stocks, Ceat slipped 6 per cent to hit a 52-week low of Rs 1,035 in the intra-day trade. It has fallen below its previous low of Rs 1,051.30, touched on January 20, 2022.
"CCI has imposed a penalty of Rs 252.16 crore on Ceat. The order is being studied for appropriate legal recourse. We strongly reiterate that there has been no wrongdoing on the part of Ceat and want to reassure all the stakeholders that Ceat has never indulged in or was part of any cartel or undertook any anti-competitive practices," the company said in a statement.
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