SAT postpones Jane Street hearing to Feb '25
MUMBAI: The Securities Appellate Tribunal has postponed the hearing on the New York-based derivatives trading giant Jane Street’s appeal against Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) order banning it from the market for alleged indices manipulation, to February 25.
The appeal pertains to the interim order by the Sebi on July 3 last year in which the regulator debarred JSI Investments, JSI2 Investments, Jane Street Singapore, and Jane Street Asia Trading—the entities collectively make up the Jane Street Group, from trading until further notice, while continuing its investigation. The Sebi also ordered the company to deposit a penalty of Rs 4,843 crore into a special account, which the regulator viewed as illicit gains and the company has complied paying up by the appointed date of July 14, 2025.
The postponement of the hearing came after senior advocate Darius Khambatta representing Jane Street, sought more time to study Sebi’s response submitted on January 16.
The interim Sebi order of July 3-4, 2025 was issued by the then whole-time member Ananth Narayan G, who demitted office in October on completion of his term and before completing the probe.
Jane Street had moved the SAT on September 3,--exactly two months after the regulatory action seeking to direct the Sebi to part with the some documents which has refused on the ground that the company has no legal rights to do so as no final order has been issued against it nor a show cause notice has been issued.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg earlier in the day reported that Jane Street India has posted a sharp surge in trading gains in FY25, reporting nearly six-fold growth before regulatory curbs halted its operations over alleged market manipulation. Net trading gains rose to Rs 4700 crore, while after-tax profit jumped 494% on-year, underscoring the scale of profits earned ahead of the regulator’s action.
The Jane Street Group allegedly manipulated index levels in the stock market to earn illegal profits, primarily through the highly liquid Bank Nifty and Nifty indices options. Jane Street and its related entities have been accused of deploying two key strategies to manipulate the derivatives markets and amassing illegal gains to the tune of Rs 36,671 crore over a two-year period between Janaury 2023 and May 2025.
The Sebi probe has revealed that over 21 expiry days between January 2023 and May 2025, the group executed large trades in the underlying cash and futures markets to influence index movements and profit from massive positions in the options market, while booked losses in the cash segment.
Established in 2000, Jane Street Group is a global proprietary trading firm in the financial services industry and has five offices in the US, Europe, and Asia, and conducts trading operations in 45 countries.
Sebi also noted that between January 2023 and March 2025, the group recorded substantial trading activity across various market segments. The group made gains of Rs 44,358 crore from index options trading, which formed the bulk of their profits while booking losses of Rs 7,208 crore in stock futures, Rs 191 crore in index futures, and Rs 288 crore in the cash market. After accounting for all gains and losses, the Group booked a net profit of Rs 36,671 crore during this period, Sebi noted.