Sebi dismisses charges against an individual in UTI case

Capital market regulator Sebi today disposed of a case against an individual that alleged fraudulent trade practices by him in UTI Sunder ETF.The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has disposed of the adjudication proceedings against Ashishkumar V Patel, saying that charges against him were "not established".It was alleged that Patel artificially inflated price of the UTI Sunder ETF ( Exchange Traded Fund ) and also gave a false and misleading appearance of trading in the fund during the period of August 1 to November 4, 2011.The regulator in an order dated March 28 has observed that Patel had executed three self trades in the UTI SUNDER ETF for one unit each, with a single self trade average value for each unit being around Rs 1,150."... given the facts and circumstances of this case, I am of the opinion that trading of only one unit each on three occasions over the entire investigation period by the noticee makes it difficult to infer that it amounts to artificially inflating the price of UTI Sunder ETF and also that it will give a false and misleading appearance of trading in UTI Sunder ETF as alleged in the Show Cause Notice," Sebi adjudicating officer Ravi Kumar said.Sebi had observed that UTI Sunder ETF opened at the BSE at Rs 660 on August 3, 2011 and closed at Rs 2,054 on November 4, 2011.