On Wednesday, SEBI imposed fines worth Rs 8 lakh on eight individuals for violating insider trading norms in Titan Company Ltd’s shares. Eight separate orders were issued for the same.

By definition, Insider Trading is buying, selling or trading shares or other securities of a listed company using unpublished price-sensitive information that can affect the stock price which has not been disclosed yet.
The regulatory body imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Kuldeep Singh Yadav, K Ramakrishna, Ganesh Kumar K, O Boopathi, Ketan Shantilal Savaliya, P Tamilarasan, Soma Bhattacharya and Rakesh Kishor Rathod. Designated persons carried out these transactions between April 2018 and March 2019.

Titan Company Ltd sent a letter to the market regulator in which the company intimated the market watchdog about contravention of PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) regulations and the company’s code of conduct by some of its designated employees. SEBI, after that, investigated Titan’s shares and observed several non-compliances with PIT rules from April 2018 to March 2019. The disclosure of this was mandatory since the transactions exceeded the market value of Rs 10 lakh.

Founded in 1984 by Xerxes Desai, Titan mainly manufactures fashion accessories such as jewellery and watches. Headquartered in Bangalore, it is a joint venture between Tata Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). The company owns brands like Fastrack and Tanishq.