Sebi bars broker and related entity for cross-segment price manipulation

Sebi alleges the entities used single-stock futures and options to manipulate prices, bars six from the market and orders Rs 28.12 crore in wrongful gains to be impounded.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday barred stock broker Prrsaar Sampada, its related entity Chaubara Eats and four others from the securities market for alleged price manipulation.

 

The market regulator also directed the impounding of alleged wrongful gains of ₹28.12 crore from the entities. The restriction on Prrsaar Sampada applies only to its proprietary account. The broker is also registered as a depository participant and research analyst.

 

An internal analysis by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Sebi had flagged that the broker was making “abnormally high profit in the stock options segment and loss in the stock futures segment by doing manipulative acts”.

 

 

After NSE sought clarifications in February and March 2026, Prrsaar allegedly stopped the activity in its own account but shifted it to related entity Chaubara, which continued a similar pattern as recently as August 2026, according to the ex-parte interim order.

 

The regulator alleged that the directors of the firms adopted a cross-segment price manipulation strategy using single-stock futures and options.

 

According to Sebi’s order, the entities focused on thinly capitalised scrips among the bottom 100 stocks by market value with equity derivatives, where prices could be moved with relatively little capital.

 

“In view of the inter-linkage between the prices of futures contracts and options contracts, the aggressive net directional trades of futures contracts at prices away from the last traded price had impacted prices of futures contracts, which, in turn also impacted the prices of options contracts of the scrip favourably, thereby, benefitting from trades executed in options segment,” the order noted.

 

The examination, covering October 2025 to June 2026, cited instances involving derivative contracts of scrips such as Kfin Technologies and Swiggy.

 

“The cross segment price manipulation using stock options and stock futures, while also engaging in possible deceptive orders and coordinated/synchronised trading, is a novel manipulative, fraudulent and unfair trade practice employed by the suspects to deceive other market participants and profit from price fluctuation artificially induced by them in the market,” Sebi whole-time member Kamlesh Chandra Varshney noted in the order.

 

Sebi said the entities’ conduct risked eroding investor confidence and market integrity, warranting emergency action. It added that a detailed investigation, including into possible coordinated trading between the two entities, remains ongoing. 

Peak XV offloads 1.46% stake in Groww 

Peak XV Partners Investments VI-1 offloaded 91.7 million shares (1.46 per cent equity) of Groww parent Billionbrains Garage Ventures via block deal worth ₹1,756.2 crore at ₹191.45 apiece on Wednesday. Buyers were not known. The stock ended the session nearly 4 per cent lower. The sale came on a day capital market and fintech stocks stayed under pressure following the government’s new UPI Merchant Discount Rate framework announcement for select transactions.