Trading ban on Shankar Sharma continues

The Securities and Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday said First Global Stockbroking head Shankar Sharma executed manipulative trade in 2001 and also rejected his appeal against a SEBI order, which banned him from trading in equities for a year.

"We have no hesitation to hold that these trades were fictitious as there was no change in the beneficial ownership of the shares traded and it was the appellant (Sharma) on both sides of the trade," the SAT bench, comprising Justices N K Sodhi and Samar Ray, ruled.

The bench observed that the appellant, Sharma, was on both sides of the trade, that is, he was the buyer as well as the seller, and the buy and sell orders were put into the system at almost the same time.

"We are, therefore, satisfied that the appellant executed fictitious trades by taking opposite positions, which is not permissible. The trades were also manipulative in as much as the buy and sell orders were placed at almost the same time," it added.

Such trades were only meant to create artificial volumes and disturbed the market equilibrium, the bench said.

In February this year, SEBI had banned Sharma from trading in equities for a year, alleging violation of norms in the 2001 stock market scam, better known as the Ketan Parekh scam.