Sebi slaps Rs 20 lakh fine on 3 entities for fraudulent trades

Regulator Sebi has imposed fines totalling more than Rs 20 lakh on three entities for indulging in fraudulent trades in the illiquid stock options segment on the BSE.

While a fine of Rs 10.10 lakh has been imposed on Top Tech Steels Pvt Ltd, Vina Viren Ahuja and Viprit Trading Pvt Ltd have been slapped with fine of Rs 5 lakh each, according to three separate orders.

The watchdog conducted a probe into trading activities in the illiquid stock options segment on the BSE from April 2014 to September 2015, after observing large-scale reversal of trades.

From the trading pattern, Sebi noted that 81.38 per cent of all the trades that were executed in the segment were non-genuine. The three entities were also found to have indulged in such trades.

The manipulative trades created an appearance of artificial trading volumes, Sebi said.

The pattern of placing buy and sell orders in a synchronised manner within few seconds of each other, reversal of the trades within a short time on the same day with wide variation in prices without any basis for such wide variation, indicate that the trades executed by the three entities were not genuine, the regulator noted.

By indulging in such trades, the entities violated PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trading Practices) norms.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)