GE Says No Need To Raise Capital in Near Term

General Electric said Wednesday that claims it will be required to raise new capital in the near-term are "inaccurate."

GE's comments came as its stock (NYSE: ge) slid for the fourth-straight trading session, amid ongoing concerns about the company's finance arm.

"Recently claims have been made that GE will be required to raise new capital near term," the company said in a statement to the investment community. "This is pure speculation, is inaccurate and is not based on any input from our company."

The Fairfield, Conn.-based company said it "acted aggressively" to strengthen it capital base and has "significantly increased" sources of liquidity at its GE Capital unit.

GE also said it expects it is "well positioned" to weather this downturn.

Shares of GE, the parent of CNBC and CNBC.com, had fallen more than 15 percent Wednesday, touching briefly below the $6-mark. The stock pared these losses after the company addressed the market speculation.

Pacific Investment Management Co.'s co-chief investment officer, Bill Gross, told CNBC that the steep sell-off in GE shares stemmed from traders betting that the company and its finance unit will lose their coveted triple-A debt rating.

He added the decline in GE shares was partly driven by technical selling by overseas participants. GE stocks and bonds are widely held by sovereign wealth funds, Gross said.

The selloff in GE failed to stem a rally in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, of which GE is a component.

The marketplace chatter had also driven up the cost of GE's credit default swaps, which are used to insure the company's debt. After the GE announcement, the cost of the company's credit default swaps narrowed slightly.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt has attempted to shore up investor confidence. He and other company officers recently added to their holdings of GE stock. On Tuesday, Immelt issued a letter to investors saying the company will survive the rough times.

"People are playing the $2.50 options on this thing pretty heavily," Peter Sorrentino, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati told Reuters referring to bets that the U.S. conglomerate's stock could fall to that level. Huntington, which holds GE shares.

"This looks like the same kind of bear rush that the financials got last summer. There's blood in the water and they're going to keep pounding away on this name," he said.

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