India’s markets regulator is enhancing its surveillance to scrutinize manipulation in derivatives trading, its chairman said on Monday, days after it barred U.S. firm Jane Street from the local markets after its investigation found the firm manipulated stock indexes.
“There may not be many more such cases,” Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said without elaborating.
Derivatives Boom
India is the world’s largest derivatives market, accounting for nearly 60% of the 7.3 billion equity derivatives traded globally in April, according to the Futures Industry Association.
The surge in derivatives trading, which has also been driven by retail investors, has prompted the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to limit the number of contract expiries and increase lot sizes to make such trades more expensive.
Sebi Bans Jane Street
On Friday, SEBI barred trading firm Jane Street from buying and selling securities in the Indian market and also seized $567 million of its funds, citing manipulation of stock indexes.
The regulator alleged that the trading firm had bought large quantities of Bank Nifty constituents in the cash and futures markets to artificially support the index in morning trade, while simultaneously building large short positions in index options.
Later in the day, Jane Street reversed the trades to profit from options positions, SEBI had said in its 105-page order.
A source told Reuters on Friday that SEBI would widen its investigation into Jane Street across exchanges and other indexes.
