India's SEBI bars JPMorgan entity and Mansi Share over closing auction manipulation

August 19, 2026 at 08:00 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

India's Securities and Exchange Board of India banned Copthall Mauritius Investment, a JPMorgan Chase entity, and Mansi Share and Stock Broking from the market on Wednesday for alleged manipulation of the new closing auction session. SEBI ordered the impounding of 36.8 million rupees ($384,324) from the firms pending further investigation.

Key Facts

Public records show Copthall Mauritius Investment is a Mauritius-based entity owned by JPMorgan Chase.
SEBI estimated wrongful gains of about 29.6 million rupees for Copthall and 7.2 million rupees for Mansi.
The alleged violations occurred on August 13, when weekly derivatives contracts linked to the BSE Sensex expired.
The closing auction session was introduced on August 3 and is a 20-minute auction window that starts at 3:15 p.m. IST after regular trading ends.
SEBI said it had not found evidence the two firms acted together.

The Firms and the Orders

Copthall Mauritius Investment is a Mauritius-based entity owned by JPMorgan Chase, according to public records. A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment, while Mansi Share was not immediately available for comment. SEBI said aggressive buy orders by Copthall and large sell orders by Mansi during the closing auction session distorted prices of Sensex constituent stocks. The regulator added that Mansi later cancelled much of its sell-side activity. SEBI ordered impounding 36.8 million rupees ($384,324) from the two firms and estimated wrongful gains of 29.6 million rupees for Copthall and 7.2 million rupees for Mansi.

The Closing Auction Session

The closing auction session, introduced in India on August 3 to improve price discovery, is a 20-minute auction window that starts at 3:15 p.m. IST after regular trading ends. In its first two weeks, the mechanism has triggered sharp swings in the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex benchmarks, as well as in options contracts linked to the indexes. SEBI said any manipulation or unfair practices employed to disturb the fair discovery of prices in the session has to be dealt with sternly by the regulator. According to the regulator, the session is transparent, making it easier to catch such manipulation. SEBI added that such conduct could undermine the integrity of the mechanism and disrupt the orderly functioning of securities markets.