M A I N   N E W S

Anil Ambani barred from stock market
Sanjeev Sharma /TNS

New Delhi, January 14
The country’s stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) today said that industrialist Anil Ambani cannot make investments in listed stocks in the secondary market till the end of this calendar year. The regulator also barred two of his group companies, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) from making any such investments till 2012 end.

However, this condition will not apply to primary market issuances, buybacks and open offers which would mean that they can raise funds from the primary market. SEBI today passed a consent order in which the two companies and their chairman, Anil Ambani and four other directors settled the probe with certain conditions and also a settlement charge of Rs 50 crore.

The order said the probe had been initiated into the shares of its telecommunications company, Reliance Communications following information that the amount raised from External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) and Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCB) by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) had been used by them to invest in the stock market, which was constituted a possible violation of several SEBI norms.