JPMorgan Entity Barred from Indian Markets Over Alleged Manipulation

India's market regulator has taken action against JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s entity, Copthall Mauritius Investment, alleging manipulative trading practices. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) released an interim order on Wednesday, accusing Copthall of using the newly introduced Closing Auction Session (CAS) to artificially push up prices of BSE Sensex stocks.

The regulator claimed that on August 13, when weekly derivatives contracts linked to the index expired, Copthall placed large buy orders across all Sensex stocks at significantly higher prices than prevailing market levels. These orders were allegedly not driven by a genuine intention to acquire shares and some were later cancelled.

SEBI also alleged that Mumbai-based Mansi Share and Stock Broking placed large sell orders in eight Sensex stocks below prevailing market prices during the CAS, depressing the index for about five minutes before cancelling almost all of the orders.