The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed a penalty of ₹1 lakh each on two designated persons of Jindal Steel & Power Ltd for trading in the company's shares and stock options during the trading-window closure period. According to reports from The Economic Times, the regulator found that both officials executed trades above the prescribed threshold without obtaining pre-clearance, violating the company's insider trading code.
The order was passed against Ramakant Gupta and Manish Kumar Sowatia, who were designated persons of the company under its code of conduct framed under insider trading regulations. As reported by The Economic Times, both officials were found to have violated the company's trading restrictions during the critical period around the company's quarterly results announcement.
The case relates to trades made around Jindal Steel's June 2023 quarter results, with the company disclosing its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, on August 11, 2023, after market hours. According to The Economic Times, the results showed a 78.87% fall in standalone profit and a 14.98% fall in consolidated profit compared with the year-ago quarter. After the announcement, the stock opened 1.17% lower and later closed 5.15% lower.
Sebi examined trading in the stock during June 1, 2023, to August 31, 2023, with the company's trading window closed from July 1, 2023, to August 13, 2023, which was 48 hours after the declaration of the quarterly financial results. As reported by The Economic Times, Jindal Steel's code of conduct required designated persons to take pre-clearance if the number of shares to be traded was 1,000 or more, or if the aggregate market value of the trade was ₹1 lakh or more. The code also specified that applications for pre-clearance could be made only when the trading window was open.
