More than 30 entities, including brokers and high net worth individuals, have come under the scanner of market watchdog Sebi for unusual trading activities on the day of Lok Sabha election results.
Sources said that the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has come across quite a few cases where GDR route could have been used for round-tripping of funds in the name of capital-raising activities of listed companies from abroad.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is looking into the possibility of price manipulation in the shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories. Sources familiar with the developments said a couple of market intermediaries may find the going tough, with the market regulator asking for data on the share price movements before the announcement of Daiichi-Sankyo's acquisition of the Ranbaxy promoters' stake last week.
This is the concluding part of a three-part series, where Aditi Roy Ghatak and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta discus how share prices in India are manipulated and the future of the country's stock exchanges.
Billionaire philanthropist George Soros believes the turmoil at Gautam Adani's business empire may weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hold on the government -- a statement which was strongly countered by BJP as an attack on Indian democracy.
Moody's Investors Service on Friday warned that the rout in Adani Group shares could hurt the conglomerate's ability to raise capital, while its peer Fitch saw no immediate impact on its ratings. Adani Group's listed companies have lost over USD 100 billion in value in just over a week after short-seller Hindenburg Research's scathing report flagged concerns about the ports-to-energy conglomerate's debt levels and alleged stock manipulation, accounting fraud and the use of tax havens.
Many films and shows go back in time to bring alive so many fading and forgotten memories.
Adani group firm Adani Ports & SEZ paid Rs 1,500 crore loan and promised to repay more as the embattled conglomerate mapped a comeback strategy after a sellout triggered by a damning report by US-based Hindenburg Research. Adani Ports and SEZ paid SBI Mutual Funds' due amount of Rs 1,500 crore on Monday and will also pay another Rs 1,000 crore of commercial papers due in March (as per the payment scheme), a company spokesperson said. "This part prepayment is from the existing cash balance and funds generated from the business operations," the spokesperson said.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) on Monday started the first debt buyback programme since billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate was targeted by a US short-seller in January. APSEZ floated a tender to buy back as much as $130 million of its July 2024 bonds and similar amounts in each of the next four quarters, it said in an exchange filing, as it looks to regain investor confidence by showing that its liquidity position is comfortable. Shares of Adani group companies pummelled after Hindenburg Research in a January 24 report accused it of accounting fraud and improper use of offshore tax havens for stock manipulation.
While a 6 million pounds (Rs 56 crore) fine has already been imposed on the Indian businessman, Rameshkumar Goenka, the Financial Conduct Authority took action against three more persons today in the same case by imposing total fines of about Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) on them.
Against an offer of 4.55 crore shares of Adani Enterprises Ltd, only 4.7 lakh were subscribed, according to information available from the BSE. Adani Enterprises fell almost 20 per cent to below the offer price of its secondary sale as all the seven listed companies of the conglomerate took a beating in the aftermath of Hindenberg Reserach alleged that the group was "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades".
Following the money and freezing anything unaccounted is the only way to set an example for others, suggests Debashis Basu.
Wipro, HCL in race for Sebi's fraud detection system upgrade,
The Chinese had enough foreign reserves.
'The Indian market has all the factors at the moment: Over-valuation, over-confidence, reliance on some source of massive fund flows and massive scams.' 'The trigger for a collapse could also have arrived.' warns Devangshu Datta.
Sebi's surveillance department has red-flagged unusual trading patterns in some stocks. Shares of some companies were seen going up ahead of a sharp sell-off.
Since arraignment under money laundering is a tougher offence, the CBDT hopes it will also overcome its dismal score sheet to prove satisfactorily to the courts that these cases were genuine ones of tax evasion.
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Firms with low promoter holding may get to buy shares from secondary market.
Ending its uncomfortable journey in India after eight years, Malaysia-based AirAsia Group on Wednesday said it has exited AirAsia India by selling its remaining 16.67 per cent stake to Tata Group-owned Air India for Rs 155.64 crore. Later in the day, Air India said it has begun the process of creating a single low-cost carrier subsidiary by merging AirAsia India and Air India Express. A working group consisting AirAsia India CEO Sunil Bhaskaran and Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh has been formed for the two carriers' integration, which is expected to take approximately 12 months, it added.
These benefits would only be available to individuals and corporates, and professionals like auditors will not be able to use this route as they are duty-bound to report any wrongdoing.
In 1937, a hydrogen-powered German airship flying into New Jersey caught fire and crashed, killing 35 passengers on board. It was sort of a man-made disaster as some 100 people were loaded on to a balloon filled with the most flammable material in the universe. The airship was named Hindenburg. Eight decades later, in 2017, a graduate of international business management from the University of Connecticut founded a "forensic financial research" firm to specialise in spotting wrongdoings and frauds, or what it calls man-made disasters, at companies around the globe and take market bets against them.
An argument used for removal of this exemption is that it is used to launder black money and bring it in as clean tax paid money by manipulating the price of less liquid shares in the market, says Harsh Roongta.
Benchmark indices finished higher on hopes of economic reforms
Adani group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group. The group has maintained it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE), which is once again in the eye of a storm due to the co-location scandal, has said it has taken several transformational steps in the past few years on the regulatory, technological, and surveillance fronts to help improve stakeholder experience and to protect investors. Senior officials of the exchange briefed the media over the steps the exchange has taken on various fronts following changes at the helm with former managing director and chief executive officer Chitra Ramkrishna's ouster in December 2016. "Over the last few years, we have been looking to modernise and transform the entire value chain of technology.
Sebi will join RBI and the government in their fight against bad loans.
Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned till 2 pm after opposition members held protest in Parliament seeking a discussion on the issue.
Asian emerging market stock prices did see a bounce post Fed-talk.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said they will pose three questions a day to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.
Building a global brand was Choksi's idea, which Modi borrowed from him.
While the collapse of a large financial intermediary can wreak havoc on the system because of the interconnectivity, a large business conglomerate too can play spoilsport if the banks have too much exposure to the entity, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Today, the single most popular route of laundering is the stock market platform, notes Debashis Basu.
Two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp has denied the report of the IT Department finding Rs 1,000 crore false expense claims, saying it is speculative. The company said officials from the Income Tax department visited its offices in the previous week, and it has provided all support and cooperation, necessary documents and data to the authorities and will continue to do so if required. "The allegations made in the press report are not borne out of any documents that have been served on us or our internal documents.
So far the government has been silent on the charges being levelled, even after the stock price rout. Perhaps it is hoping for the share price to settle so that the matter goes away, predicts Aakar Patel.
Market regulator scours platforms to establish link between traders and those who share info.
India's finance minister has emphasised that "it is the real economy that is going to matter.
As much as half the turnover of all stock exchanges in India is accounted for by only 25 broking firms. Ninety per cent of the turnover of all stock exchanges in the country is out of only five cities. These are hardly healthy signs of India's financial markets.
Legal hurdle cited in I-T action against 32,000 entities.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday asked market regulator SEBI and the two premier bourses, National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange, to chalk out a detailed roadmap to prevent manipulation in regional stock exchanges and misuse of sub
Each scam that comes out in the open shows the regulators to be miles behind.
