NEW DELHI: Markets watchdog Sebi is in advance stages of passing an order in the NSE co-location case, ETNOW reported on Friday quoting sources.The regulator is investigating alleged preferential treatment given to a few high-frequency traders and brokers on the exchanges trading platform.Sebi has found that brokers and NSE officials had planned trading advantage, sources close to the matter said.
They believe it would be difficult for the regulator to establish the exact quantum of illegal profits a few brokerages would have thus made.
While NSE would be penalised heavily, select brokerages, too, are expected to face stringent actions, the sources said.
NSE employees who connived with the brokers will be asked to leave.
Such an action by Sebi may put NSE's planned IPO on the backburner, ETNOW reported.
The exchange had filed its draft red herring prospectus in December 2016 and originally planned to hit the market in 2017.In March this year, Sebi returned NSE's application for consent settlement of the case as investigations into the algo-trade case were pending.Consent orders are similar to out-of-court settlements in securities law parlance, in which the entities involved seek to settle without admitting guilt.
Co-location is a way of positioning of servers in proximity with those of the exchange to reduce latency to the minimum.