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Regulator asks brokers to step up surveillance

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Anindita DeyReena Zachariah Mumbai
Last Updated : Feb 05 2013 | 2:36 AM IST
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has directed all broking firms to strengthen the surveillance and information dissemination system.
 
The move comes in the wake of the recent front-running order passed against a host of brokers and their clients trading in the Bilt shares.
 
In the first-ever confirmation of the disgorgement order passed by Sebi, dealers, brokers and clients dealing in the Bilt shares and charged for front-running have paid up the entire profit amounting to Rs 66 lakh and some have even applied to Sebi for consent.
 
Technically, front-running is a practice where a broker or a dealer buys or sells a particular stock for himself first before executing a large order in the same stock for his clients.
 
This is based on some classified information, which is available to a certain group of brokers and dealers and not the market.
 
Under the modus operandi, if it is a buy order, traders execute long positions. When the client's order is executed, the stock price moves up following heavy purchases by the client and traders square off their position at a profit.
 
Upon the direction of the market regulator, UTI Securities, jointly owned by Standard Chartered Bank (49 per cent) and Securities Trading Corporation of India (51 per cent), had also conducted an internal investigation and submitted the report to Sebi, confirming the same.
 
"As directed by Sebi, we have conducted an internal review and have submitted our report to Sebi. Since the matter is under consideration, we feel it is inappropriate for us to comment at this stage," said an official spokesperson for UTI Securities.
 
Sebi has also asked Emkay Shares and Pranay Shares to conduct internal investigation and submit their respective reports to the regulator.
 
According to the Sebi findings, dealers, brokers and their clients were engaged in short-selling shares based on the information passed on by dealers of UTI Securities to other brokers in Parayas Securities and Emkay Shares.

 
 

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