Sebi slaps fine of Rs 75 lakh on 15 entities for non-genuine trades

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Friday slapped fines totalling Rs 75 lakh on 15 entities for indulging in non-genuine trades in the illiquid stock options segment on BSE.

In fifteen separate orders, the regulator levied a fine of Rs 5 lakh each on Vanshika Gurbani, UNNO Industries, Vaishali Tushar Shah, Varshaben ManojKumar Jadav, Surendra Kumar Bagri HUF, Ketan Desai, Kiran Bhawani and Kiran Gupta.

Kiran Rasiklal Mehta, Ask Realty and Developers, Sunita Agarwal, Suresh Maheshwari, Usha Maurya, Union Commodities and Sunrise Legal Advisor and Consultant were also penalised by the markets watchdog.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had observed large-scale reversal of trades in the illiquid stock options segment of BSE, leading to the creation of artificial volumes on the bourse.

It conducted an investigation into the trading activities of certain entities engaged in the segment on BSE from April 2014 to September 2015.

According to Sebi, these 15 entities were among those who indulged in the execution of reversal trades.

The reversal trades are alleged to be non-genuine in nature as they are executed in the normal course of trading, which leads to a false or misleading appearance of trading in terms of generating artificial volumes, Sebi said.

The entities had violated the provisions of PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices).