Jane Street has been barred from the Indian securities market by its markets regulator, which has said the U.S. firm used its trading strategies to "manipulate" a key stock market index, leading to losses for millions of retail investors,

The Securities and Exchange Board of India last week accused Jane Street of a “sinister scheme” to manipulate Indian stocks and derivatives, temporarily banned its activities in the country and impounded more than $550mn of “illegal gains” — the most draconian penalty it has ever levied.

India has gone from being a small player in the highly speculative equity derivatives market to the world’s largest, all within just five years. Daily turnover in the market now sits at around $3 trillion.