The Securities Exchange Board (Sebi), the capital markets watchdog, has barred US proprietary trading firm Jane Street Capital from accessing securities markets and impounded up to $566 million in illegal gains from manipulating the Nifty index.
According to Sebi calculations, the company and its associated entities made a whopping Rs 36,671 crore in profits between January 2023 and May 2025, as stated in the 105-page interim order issued late last night by whole-time member Anantha Narayna G. Sebi considers up to $566.3 million of the total gain to be illegal.
Key Highlights
- SEBI banned Jane Street from Indian securities and impounded $566.3 million citing Nifty expiry manipulation.
- Regulator alleged repeated aggressive trades on Bank Nifty expiry days, misleading retail investors for illicit profits.
The group's total illegal profits identified over 15 days in May 2025 were Rs 4,843 crore. Between January 2023 and March 2025, JS earned Rs 44,358 crore in options and lost only Rs 7,208 crore in stock futures, Rs 191 crore in index futures, and Rs 288 crore in cash. Its net profit totaled Rs 36,671 crore.
JS Group used to aggressively buy large amounts of BankNifty underlying stocks/futures on expiry days (to the tune of Rs 4,370 crore on January 17, 2024) and sell these index options for Rs 32,115 crore. By afternoon, it had aggressively sold large underlying stocks/futures totaling Rs 5,372 crore. The peak short position in the index options segment was Rs 46,620 crore. Thus, it earned a clean profit of Rs 735 crore from index options, while its intraday loss from cash/futures was only Rs 61.6 crore.
According to a 105-page order issued late Thursday night by whole-time member Anantha Narayan G, the US trading firm's "four entities are restrained from accessing the securities market and are further prohibited from buying, selling, or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly."
The regulator also issued an interim order to seize over $566.3 million from Jane Street in alleged illegal gains, and banks have been directed to ensure that "no debits are made from accounts held by Jane Street's entities, either jointly or individually, without the permission of Sebi."
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The four entities barred include JS India (JS) Investments, JSI2 Investments, Jane Street Singapore, and Jane Street Asia Trading. The US trading firm allegedly used a variety of strategies to manipulate the benchmark Nifty 50 index in order to profit from significantly larger positions in index options, according to the interim order.
The regulator also stated that repeated instances of manipulative trading occurred even after a "explicit advisory" was issued to the firm in February 2025.
