INFY PROBES AS SEBI NAMES 2 EMPLOYEES FOR INSIDER TRADING

Infosys has ordered an internal investigation on two of its employees named in an insider trading case. It said that appropriate action would be taken once it completes the probe. The statement came hours after an order by the Securities and Exchanges Board of India where it named Pranshu Bhutra, senior corporate counsel; and Venkata Subramaniam VV, senior principal, Corporate Accounting Group, in an insider trading case dating back to June 2020.

The 75 per cent peak margin norms came into effect on Tuesday. The broking industry expects a 10-15 per cent hit on volumes because leveraged bets in the system will reduce significantly on account of the new norms. According to industry players, the biggest impact can be felt on derivative futures volumes, followed by cash market volumes. They say traders now may shift to riskier options trading.

The norms are being implemented in phases since December 2020. Between December 2020 and February 2021, traders were supposed to maintain at least 25 per cent of the peak margin; this was raised to 50 per cent between March and May. The same has been raised to 75 per cent now until August, and finally to 100 per cent from September 1 onwards.

The implementation of 25 per cent peak margin norms didn’t have a big impact on volumes. In March, cash market volumes were down 20 per cent over the previous month. With the exception of index options, all the derivatives categories reported declines. Volumes in May, for all categories except options, were much below February levels. On Tuesday, volumes were about 10 per cent below May’s average daily turnover.

“In the short term, the new rules will affect liquidity as the average volume per trader will go down because of reduced leverage. Over the long term, the number of traders who survive will hopefully make up for the liquidity shortage,” said Prateek Singh, Founder of Learnapp.com.