Sebi may finally probe rigging in Agarwal-run Home Trade

Somaiya said the Sebi probe into Home Trade should include price rigging at the trading counter as the stock price once touched the level of Rs 600. Sebi and stock exchanges ignored the price rigging in the counter.

He also said that the Sebi probe should also cover as to how the stock of Home Trade could get listed on PSE. It must look into allegations that the financial portal sought a listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and whether the said proposal was rejected by BSE. It should also ascertain the proposals for the listing of Home Trade on BSE.

To avoid a saga like Home Trade, Somaiya said that there is an urgent need for common listing norms. The regulator must put in place a centralised listing authority as quickly as possible to avoid more such companies getting listed on the bourses.

Somaiya said that either there has to be a centralised listing system or there could be a co-ordination committee comprising NSE, BSE and one or two smaller stock exchanges (SEs). Moreover, smaller SEs are more vulnerable to this kind of practices as they are used by the unscrupulous promoters for their own purpose. There is an urgent need for Sebi to initiate action in this regard, he said.

Reiterating his earlier demand that the investigation into the G-Sec scam should be handed over to the Central government as suggested by the Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, Somaiya said that the state government does not have the expertise to carry out the probe and also the investigations carried out by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had not progressed satisfactorily.

Nevertheless, he stated that there is also an urgent need for checking the investments made by all the provident funds, co-operative credit societies, PSUs and other banks’ investments in government securities and investments made by co-operative banks based in Gujarat.