India’s market regulator SEBI has temporarily barred American investment firm Jane Street Group from accessing India’s securities market. The regulator has accused the American firm of widespread market manipulation.
$566 million frozen
In its interim order, SEBI has also frozen over 566 million dollars belonging to Jane Street. According to the order, that’s the total amount of “unlawful gains” made by the firm. This comes as a major blow for the US trading firm, which according to a Bloomberg report, generated over 2.3 billion dollars in net revenue from equity derivatives in India last year.
Serial moonlighter in limelight
Indian techie Soham Parekh, accused of working at multiple startups simultaneously, has admitted to doing so. The serial moonlighter shot to limelight after a US-based AI startup founder, Suhail Doshi, accused him of being a scammer. In a social media post, Suhail alleged that Soham had been “scamming people” by working at three to four startups at the same time.
The post opened the floodgates, with several other startup founders making similar accusations. Later, speaking to TBPN, Soham said he wasn’t proud of what he did. However, he added that his financial situation had forced him to take up multiple jobs at once.
India–US trade deal buzz
According to various media reports, an interim trade deal between the two countries is imminent. Negotiations are reportedly stuck on two key issues. While India wants greater access for products from its labour intensive industries, the United States is demanding the removal of all tariff barriers on agricultural and dairy products.
The Indian side had extended its stay in Washington DC to thrash out a deal ahead of the July 9 deadline. That’s the day the pause on US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs lifts. The US President has also reiterated this week that India and the US will have a trade deal.
HDB Financial: Stellar debut
HDFC Bank’s subsidiary, HDB Financial, made a stellar market debut this week. The stock listed at 835 rupees apiece — a premium of around 13 percent over its IPO upper price band of 740 rupees per share.
According to an analysis by Moneycontrol, this makes it the most successful listing among all public issues worth over 10,000 crore rupees launched in India since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Read more: From Noida to the battlefield: Indian defence drones take flight
Weak week for D-Street
Indian equities failed to maintain the momentum gained last week, retreating from their multi-month highs. The Sensex slipped almost a percent from last week’s high to end below the 83,500 level. The Nifty saw a similar cut, ending in the red for the week. Now, all eyes are on the fine print of the India–US trade deal.
