Adani Ports, Jet Airways among scores of firms penalised by exchanges

NSE, BSE take action against firms that failed to comply with listing regulations

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BSE on Wednesday cracked the whip on several listed firm that had failed to comply with the listing regulation. Among the companies that were penalised included Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, which is part of the benchmark Nifty index; beleaguered firms Jet Airways and IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company; and over a dozen state-owned entities including Bharat Petroleum Corporation, MOIL and SJVN.

The exchanges imposed fine between Rs 100 and Rs 450,000 on these firms for breach of different listing regulations. Market experts said while the fine amount paltry, the exchange action will send a strong message to listed companies to comply with the listing rules.

The regulations flout included non-appointment of women director, non submission of corporate governance report within due date, delay or non-disclosure of record date for dividends, non submission of annual report and non-submission of shareholding pattern.

Besides imposing penalties, exchanges, who are considered to be first-level regulators, also have the powers to freeze the holdings of the promoters if the company fails to comply with the listing regulations or pay the fine levied within the stipulated period.

Also, if companies remain non-compliant for two consecutive quarters then the exchanges can impose trading curbs on their securities such as allowing trading only on a ‘trade for trade’ basis.

The list issued by NSE on Wednesday was for the 250 non-compliant companies for quarter ended March 31, 2019. Meanwhile, BSE a separate list of nearly 1,000 companies. The list issued by BSE had 515 companies that had failed to appoint a qualified company secretary as the compliance officer; 173 companies that didn’t have proper board composition and 121 companies that had not submitted shareholding pattern.