SEBI bans Jane Street for index manipulation of over ₹4,800 crores
- finminati
- Jul 9
- 2 min read
A 1-page summary
09 July 2025, Wednesday
SEBI has barred Jane Street, a quant trading firm, from the Indian stock markets for making unlawful gains by manipulating the stock index. The firm, allegedly, in an internal email to its employees, has denied the allegations and plans to challenge the ban.
Find out more about Jane Street, its operations in India, why SEBI has barred it, and Jane Street's response, only on FINMINATI.
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Jane Street and its Operation in India
U.S.-based, Jane Street is one of the world’s largest quant trading firms.
Jane Street operates in India through four group entities, two of which are based in the country, and other two in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The firm started its first unit in India in December 2020. The other two Asian entities operate as foreign investors registered with India.
Between January 2023 and March 2025, the four entities cumulatively made a profit of $5 billion by trading in equity options in India.
Why has SEBI barred Jane Street?
As per SEBI, Jane Street made unlawful gains of ₹4,843.6 crore by manipulating the Bank Nifty index.
The Bank Nifty index consists of 12 banking stocks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, etc.
Jane Street would buy the stocks and futures of the constituent banks (of Bank Nifty). This would lead to an upmove in the Bank Nifty index, enticing other investors, especially retail investors, to similarly invest in these stocks. This would then push the index up even more.
At the same time Jane Street would build large “short positions” on the index via options. Short position implies that the firm would make money IF the price of the index goes down.
Then the firm would sell the stocks previously bought, thus driving the prices of the stocks/index down and making money on the short options positions.
SEBI also said that by incorporating entities in India, Jane Street managed to "work around" regulations that prohibit foreign portfolio investors from undertaking intraday positions in the cash market.
Jane Street's Response
Jane Street has allegedly denied the accusations and told its employees that it will challenge the ban by SEBI.
Jane Street said it was "beyond disappointed", calling the SEBI accusations "extremely inflammatory".
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