The Adani Group informed both exchanges, BSE and NSE, that its indirect subsidiary, Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Limited (VCPL), had made an open offer to the public shareholders of New Delhi Television Ltd, on Wednesday. The manager of the open offer, JM Financial Limited, addressed a letter to the Securities and... The post appeared first on .

Market regulator Sebi has penalised 18 entities, including the National Stock Exchange (NSE), its former managing director Chitra Ramkrishna and group president Ravi Varanasi, in the ‘dark fibre’ case. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed penalties of Rs 7 crore on the NSE, and Rs 5... The post appeared first on .

Market regulator Sebi has penalised 18 entities, including the National Stock Exchange (NSE), its former managing director Chitra Ramkrishna and group president Ravi Varanasi, in the ‘dark fibre’ case. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed penalties of Rs 7 crore on the NSE, and Rs 5... The post appeared first on .

Market regulator Sebi has penalised 18 entities, including the National Stock Exchange (NSE), its former managing director Chitra Ramkrishna and group president Ravi Varanasi, in the ‘dark fibre’ case. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed penalties of Rs 7 crore on the NSE, and Rs 5... The post appeared first on .

Market regulator Sebi has penalised 18 entities, including the National Stock Exchange (NSE), its former managing director Chitra Ramkrishna and group president Ravi Varanasi, in the ‘dark fibre’ case. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed penalties of Rs 7 crore on the NSE, and Rs 5... The post appeared first on .

New Delhi Apr 26 PTI Insurance giant LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per share for the Rs 21000 crore public offer that is likely to open on May 4 sources said Life Insurance Corporation LIC would offer a Rs 60 discount for policyholders and Rs 40 for retail investors and employees The issue is likely to open for subscription on May 4 and is expected to close on May 9 and the bid lot would be 15 Anchor investors can subscribe to the shares of the insurance company on May 2 With this IPO the government would offload a 35 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth by selling 2213 crore shares LIC has reserved 221 crore shares or 10 per cent of the issue size for its policyholders while 15 lakh shares for employees sources said After policyholders and share holders reservations the remaining shares will be allocated in the ratio of 50 per cent for qualified institutional buyers QIB 35 per cent for retail investors and 15 per cent for non-institutional investors Sources said 60 per cent of the QIB portion has been reserved for anchor investors The government in February had planned to sell a 5 per cent stake or 316 crore shares in the insurance behemoth and had filed draft papers with Sebi However the IPO plans faced headwinds from the ongoing market volatility due to the Russia-Ukraine war Last week the government decided to lower the issue size to 35 per cent The government has also filed papers with Sebi seeking exemption from the 5 per cent stake sale norm sources said According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India Sebi norms companies with a valuation of over Rs 1 lakh crore have to sell a minimum 5 per cent stake in the IPO LICs embedded value which is a measure of the consolidated shareholders value in an insurance company was pegged at about Rs 54 lakh crore as of September 30 2021 by international actuarial firm Milliman Advisors Based on investor feedback the market value of government-owned LIC has been pegged at 11 times its embedded value or Rs 6 lakh crore LIC IPO would contribute a major chunk to the budgeted disinvestment proceeds in the current fiscal The government has pegged disinvestment receipts at Rs 65000 crore for the current financial year up from Rs 13531 crore raised in the last fiscal PTI JD DP MR

New Delhi Feb 21 PTI As a multi-agency probe into the NSE case gathers pace the grant of preferential server and data access to select brokers and their suspected misuse are being investigated threadbare to unveil all quid pro quo arrangements in a highly-sophisticated scheme that worked like a cricket betting scandal officials said on Monday While the bourse has said it has taken several steps over the years to strengthen its technology infrastructure including as per regulatory orders the officials said certain fresh disclosures call for a detailed probe into whether a select group of individuals in high positions had banded together to make illicit gains by facilitating the preferential trading slots beginning over a decade ago Even a split-second faster access is said to result in huge gains for a trader The preferential access allegedly did not include just close proximity to the exchange servers but also provided faster and Tick-By-Tick TBT data containing minute details about all trades and orders Explaining how the system worked one of the senior officials said The best analogy to understand this highly-technical matter is cricket and betting For a common investor or a broker trading on his or her normal terminal is like watching the live telecast of the match on television or in a stadium But imagine your eyes and ears right behind every single player in the field getting to know their moves and strategies on a real-time basis before anyone else the official said And we are not even talking about match-fixing The sophisticated algorithms at play make it possible to access a huge amount of data on a real-time basis with the use of modern computer systems and high-tech software solutions the official added He also countered an ongoing narrative that there was no loss to investors saying the genuine investors were definitely on the losing side as this system was facilitating a select few to buy shares at a lower price and sell those at a higher price due to their faster access The difference may be very small for one individual investor possibly just one rupee or a few paise per share but when you look at the huge amount of trades running into lakhs and crores every day the overall gains for the selected brokers could have run into hundreds and thousands of crores of rupees over a period of few years he added The issues under the scanner include possible pecuniary gains made by some top exchange officials and certain middlemen as also internal and external approvals for roll-out and operation of controversial co-location and sophisticated algorithm-based high frequency trading facilities The officials said the money trail at various levels including to and from the concerned brokers accounts would be looked into in addition to financial accounts of a large number of individuals who were directly or indirectly associated with the matter especially between 2009 and 2016 from inside or outside the exchange If required help would be sought from foreign regulators and agencies they added The National Stock Exchange the countrys largest bourse is believed to have rolled out the co-location services in 2009-2010 One major roadblock in the investigations so far has been a missing trove of e-mails and fresh attempts are being made to retrieve those as a large number of computer hardware including laptops used by some top officials were destroyed by the exchange long back as e-waste The Securities and Exchange Board of India Sebi began its probe into the matter in early 2015 after it was brought to light by a whistle-blower that some brokers were allegedly getting preferential access through co-location facility early login and dark fiber -- which can allow a trader a split-second faster access to data feed of an exchange NSEs co-location facility allowed brokers to take on rent-specific racks to co-locate their serves and systems within the exchange premises for a low latency connection to the exchange The servers and systems placed in these racks got to receive live market data feed and accordingly place their trade orders with access to features like direct market access algo trading and smart order routing Besides the Tick-By-Tick TBT data feed provided information on every change in the order book but this information was allegedly delivered one by one unlike a broadcast where everyone gets the price information at the same time if they were at the same distance from the server Rather the TBT data feed was disseminated sequentially in the sequence the brokers connected or logged in to the server This allegedly created a benefit to the first one to connect to the lowest-load server in terms of receiving the data faster than others It was also alleged that some brokers got to access back-up servers as the load on those servers was low while a few not only logged in first on select high-tech servers but also tried to crowd out others by occupying the second and third positions on those servers Over the years Sebi has put in place stricter regulations to close the loopholes and to address concerns relating to algo trading and co-location facilities including by making TBT feed free of cost to all trading members and asking exchanges to provide managed co-location service through eligible vendors for ensuring low-cost services to all interested brokers It has also been alleged that some brokers colluded with NSEs employees and outsourced staff to obtain information regarding load and starting of servers including backup servers This enabled first-to-connect brokers to get data ahead of others for three years between 2011 and 2014 Besides differential access in the form of dark fiber was allegedly given to one trading member at NSE to connect across NSE and BSE co-location at least 4-5 months ahead of other members as per the complaints Sebi had initially set up a cross-functional team to look into the matter and the regulators Technical Advisory Committee TAC subsequently recommended setting up an expert committee which submitted its report to the regulator in March 2016 It found that NSE had violated norms of fair access and allowed some brokers to benefit Also when a complaint was first made to NSE its management dismissed it and didnt initiate any steps to check the possibility of any collusion with the staff of the exchange NSEs board was asked by the panel to initiate an independent examination including a forensic probe by an external agency The exchange was also directed to place its co-location revenues including from any fiber connectivity from brokers co-location facility to their offices in an escrow account There were indications that certain brokers were moved to specific servers while the same was denied to others There were also instances where some co-location members were allowed access to multiple TBT servers by redistribution of their IPs which was not in line with the sequential method Further e-mails reviewed during probes suggested that certain brokers may have got advice from someone within the exchange that there was an advantage in receiving market feeds on early logins to the TBT servers The forensic audit also observed the absence of protocols related to data retention e-mail and other information for some former top officials of NSE Over the years Sebi has passed several orders including against NSE and its then top executives as also against some brokers in the co-location matter for breach of capital market regulations The ongoing probes are focussing on illicit gains made in the process and whether a money-making machine was at play in hands of a coterie of people the officials said PTI BJ RAM

New Delhi Oct 30 PTI The finance ministry has invited applications to appoint the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Sebi to succeed Ajay Tyagi whose five-year term comes to an end in February Tyagi a 1984 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre was appointed as Sebi chairman on March 1 2017 for a period of three years Subsequently he was given a six-month extension and later in August 2020 tenure was extended by 18 months In a public notice dated October 28 the ministry has invited applications from eligible candidates for the post of Sebi chairman for a maximum period of five years or till 65 years whichever is earlier Applications of eligible candidates in prescribed proforma along with certified copies of required documents may be forwarded through a proper channel wherever applicable on or before December 6 2021 a public notice issued by the Finance Ministrys Economic Affairs Department said Incomplete applications and applications received after the last date shall not be considered it said In the past the government has given extension to U K Sinha for three years making him the second longest-serving chief of Sebi after D R Mehta In the case of Tyagi the government issued appointment notification twice According to the first notification issued on February 10 2017 Tyagi the then Additional Secretary Investment in Department of Economic Affairs was appointed chairman of Sebi for a period not exceeding five years or till the age of 65 years or until further order whichever is earlier Subsequently another notification curtailed his appointment to an initial period of three years As per the procedure for the appointment of regulators the candidates will be shortlisted by the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Search Committee FSRASC headed by Cabinet Secretary The shortlisted candidates are interviewed by the panel comprising Economic Affairs Secretary and three external members having domain knowledge Based on interaction FSRASC recommends name to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approval PTI DP MKJ MKJ