Mumbai, Nov. 30: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has barred 12 stock brokers of the Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) from buying, selling or dealing in securities of five companies for artificially inflating the prices and volumes in those stocks.

The market regulator has also suspended trading of those five companies ?Nageshwar Investment Ltd, Adinath Bio-labs Ltd, Globe Stocks & Securities Ltd, Goenka Business & Finance Ltd and Coronet Ltd ? till further notice.

In an order issued today, the market regulator noted: A preliminary investigation revealed that in those five companies, all of which are listed on CSE, the brokers followed a common modus operandi of artificially inflating the price and creating false volumes through continuous self deals executed on the same terminal and cross-deals amongst themselves, thereby not only enriching themselves but also aiding and abetting the process of legitimising the gains.

It added that the companies themselves have recorded poor or lacklustre financial performance and have not bothered to file up to date financial statements with CSE.

The 12 brokers who have been barred from dealing in securities include Basant Periwal & Co, Binoy Poddar, P. K. Agarwal & Co, Pramod K. Kothari, Purshottam Lal Kejdiwal, Santosh K. Kejriwal Securities (P) Ltd, Dinesh Kumar Lodha, Ashish Stock Broking, Sunil Kedia, Murari Lal Goenka, Shyam Lal Sultania and Ahilya Commercial Pvt. Ltd.