SEBI Advocates For Stricter Insider Trading Enforcement.

Mumbai; March 2026: SEBI is pushing banks and other regulators to tighten enforcement of insider-trading rules, in particular safeguarding unpublished price sensitive information, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) speaks during an interview at the SEBI headquarters in Mumbai said. While moving ahead in the footsteps of previous years, SEBI has taken action in the past year against officials of the country’s electricity regulator and executives at Indian lender IndusInd Bank, and sent notices over alleged violations to Bank of America and executives at consulting firms PwC and EY under its insider trading rules.

“The insiders may lie not only in companies, they may also lie in the people who have got information in a fiduciary capacity”, SEBI Chair Tuhin Kanta Pandey told media outlets in an interview on Thursday. The interview was placed under embargo by the regulator till Monday. Furthermore, Pandey said, “It may also lie with regulators because they are also doing regulation. So, we really have to see that everyone is adequately sensitized to this issue”, he said.

Meanwhile, regulatory data shows that SEBI investigated 287 cases of alleged insider trading in the financial year 2024-25, compared to 175 cases in the prior year. Data for the current financial year ending 31st March 2026 is not yet available.

As per the provisions laid down in the Fiscal Budget 2025-2026, SEBI has focused on easing entry processes for foreign investors. Feedback has been gathered across 77 meetings with foreign portfolio investors over the year, with rules being changed where needed. The regulator is working with the federal government and the central bank to simplify the differing rules that apply to foreign portfolio investors and longer-term strategic investors. “The different ways in which foreign money can come in needs to be re-looked at”, Pandey said, declining to provide further details.

India classifies overseas investment of up to 10% as foreign portfolio investment while larger holdings fall under foreign direct investment and are subject to sectoral caps and in some cases security checks.

Easing regulations for foreign investors has been seen as important at a time when portfolio and longer term strategic investments have been weak.

During the FY:2025-2026, international portfolio investors sold $18 billion in Indian equities in 2025. Longer term foreign direct investment remained low at $4 billion in the April-December 2025 period, although it has risen from $0.6 billion during the same period the previous year, according to central bank data.

As asserted earlier, with due cognizance of the provisions in the Union Finance Budget, SEBI has tightened rules across India’s booming derivative market, where most retail investors are making losses. SEBI has reduced the number of derivative contracts available for trade, raised the minimum trading amount but stayed away from any rules that bar small retail investors from that segment.

Meanwhile, as US-Israel attacks on Iran escalates manifesting a higher level of geo-political uncertainty, the Indian rupee and government bonds has kicked off the last month of the financial year under pressure as the breakout of conflict in the Middle East sparked a sharp jump in oil prices and soured risk appetite in global markets.

Oil prices jumped sharply in reaction, with traders and analysts anticipating a dash towards safe havens such as gold and the U.S. dollar, with the rupee needing to mitigate with the global pressure, while closing above the 91 per dollar mark on Friday, little changed week-on-week.

As a major oil importer, India remains exposed to the risk of sustained disruptions to oil supplies from the Middle East. Indian state refiners have already started scouting for alternative supplies. “The first order reaction to the weekend’s escalation will likely see the dollar benefit on the back of higher energy prices and elevated risk aversion, to the tune of 0.5-1% for every 10% increase in oil”,

Indian shares tumbled today on its opening as the Middle East war pushed crude prices higher and triggered a flight to safe havens, weighing on investor sentiment. The Nifty 50 felled 2.06% to 24,659.25 and the BSE Sensex has shed 3.38% to 78,543.73 as of 9:15 a.m. IST.

This is the steepest intraday drop for Nifty since February 1 and the Sensex since April 7, 2025.

Indian rupee depreciated against the dollar while government bond yields rose after U.S., Israel strikes on Iran raised the risk of protracted conflict in the Middle East.

All 16 major sectors logged losses. The broader small-caps slipped 3.8%, while the mid-caps fell 3.4%.

Oil marketing companies, paint and tyre makers, aviation companies and chemical manufacturers all fell on rising crude oil prices.

Crude surged more than 7% on Monday to the highest in months. Brent crude futures climbed to about $82.40 a barrel, their highest in 14 months, in the first trading after the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran over the weekend killed Tehran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, jolting markets and deepening uncertainty for the global economy.

Although Iran has not obstructed the Strait Of Hormuz, however major shipping companies have docked ahead, and alongside the most important passage, in a clear apprehension of surmounting losses, resulting the non-movement of nearly 20% of global oil flows and over 40% of India’s crude imports transit, prompting governments and refiners to assess oil stockpiles.

Suvro Sanyal – Team Maverick.