Mumbai, July 10 -- Shareholders reposed their confidence in Vedanta Ltd (VEDL) during the company's annual general meeting on Thursday, a day after a short-seller's report called the company a "dying host" for its London-based "parasite" parent Vedanta Resources Ltd (VRL).

The company's shares settled 0.4% lower on the BSE at Rs.438.95 apiece, mirroring the 0.41% fall in the benchmark Sensex.

When one of the shareholders broke ranks to question the company's brand fee payments to VRL, Anil Agarwal, the founder and chairman of the Vedanta Group, chose not to respond. He simply called the short-seller report "motivated," before asking Deshnee Naidoo, the chief executive of VRL, who is not on the rolls of VEDL, to answer the question.

Nai...