Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Monday said that the capital markets regulator was seeing “signs” of price manipulation in the small and medium enterprises (SME) segment.

The manipulation was both at the initial public offer (IPO) and also in trading, Ms Buch said, advising caution to investors.

“We do see the signs (of price manipulation), we have the technology to do it. We are able to see certain patterns. I would say it is still on the kitchen table, it is not yet gone into the oven,” Ms Buch said, speaking to women journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Mumbai.

The capital markets regulator was still working with advisors to understand all the dimensions and analyse the data, she said, adding that if it found some malpractices, the next step may be to issue a public consultation on it.

She added that investors needed to understand that the SME segment was different from the main board and it was necessary for the SEBI to underline the same in terms of the rules on disclosures which were made to investors.

Regulations governing the SME segment, the disclosures and therefore, the nature of risk were all different, she added.