Mumbai: September 17, 2008 - The impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers seems to be taking a toll on ICICI Bank. The bank's UK arm has an exposure of $80 million to Lehman's debt exposure.

There is a rumour that the top management of the ICICI Bank has been selling off the shares of the bank over the last few days.

However, the authorities of the bank preferred to keep mum when they were asked to comment on it. In a statement India's largest private sector bank said that none of the members of its top management had sold the bank's shares in the current year.

"It has been brought to the notice of ICICI Bank that a malicious rumour is being spread to the effect that some of the top management have been selling ICICI Bank shares for the last few days. These rumours are baseless and irresponsible," said a statement from the bank.

ICICI Bank said that it will report the matter to regulatory authorities for action against those responsible for rumours.

The bank's shares recouped some losses on the denial of share sale.

At 1510 hrs IST, the shares traded at Rs 561.20 on National Stock Exchange (NSE) with a volume of 23.2 mln shares, down 5.15 per cent from close on Tuesday but up from the intraday low of Rs 530.