Sebi Bars Jane Street Entities, Impounds ₹4,000 Crore Over ‘Manipulative’ Trades in Bank Nifty & Nifty Options

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has barred four entities linked to the Jane Street Group from the Indian securities market and seized over ₹4,000 crore in alleged illegal gains, citing manipulative and fraudulent trading strategies in index options.

In a 105-page interim order, Sebi accused the US-based proprietary trading giant of deploying two expiry-centric strategies—dubbed Intra-day Index Manipulation and Extended Marking the Close—across at least 18 trading sessions between January 2023 and May 2025.

How the Strategies Worked

Sebi detailed how the group allegedly moved prices in the cash and futures markets to benefit its massive options positions.

• In the Intra-day Index Manipulation strategy (seen on 15 days), Jane Street entities bought heavily into Bank Nifty stocks in the morning while taking large bearish positions in options, then quickly reversed their stock trades later in the day to push down the index and profit from their options bets.

• On 17 January 2024, they booked a loss of ₹61.6 crore in cash and futures but earned ₹735 crore in options by day’s end.

• In the Extended Marking the Close strategy (observed on three days), the firm allegedly moved prices during the last hour of trade to secure favourable settlement levels for its open options positions.

Sebi called the trades “deliberate, premeditated, and designed to mislead other participants,” describing the scale and intensity of interventions as lacking economic justification.

Entities Barred & Findings

The barred entities — Jane Street Singapore Pte. Ltd., Jane Street Asia Trading Ltd., JSI Investments Pvt. Ltd., and JSI2 Investments Pvt. Ltd. — operated as a “single economic group,” the order said.

Jane Street’s total profit from Bank Nifty manipulations alone was ₹3,914 crore, with overall gains from the 18 days exceeding ₹4,000 crore. Notably, the firm had been cautioned by NSE in February 2025, but allegedly continued with similar patterns as recently as May.

Sebi’s interim action includes freezing the impounded gains and prohibiting the group from pursuing similar trading strategies pending further hearings.

The order underscores concerns about high-frequency and algorithmic trading practices and the potential for abuse by dominant market players.

Jane Street, a leading global trading firm known for its aggressive ETF and derivatives strategies, has been given an opportunity to respond and request a hearing before a final order.