SGX does not regulate how and when broking firms impose trading curbs on stocks.

'These are actions that the
individual broking house would take
to manage its credit exposure, its
stock exposure,' said SGX's head of
risk management and regulation Yeo
Lian Sim. 'SGX does not specifically
have rules on this, nor would we
micro-manage the companies in the
actions that they take.'


She was speaking to reporters at a
briefing convened after 33 retail
investors turned up at SGX's
premises in Shenton Way yesterday
afternoon. They wanted to know why
some broking houses had imposed
trading restrictions on shares in
Uni-Asia Finance Corp before a
drastic drop in the stock price
earlier this week, and if there was
foul play involved.


A commentary in BT on Thursday had
asked if advance knowledge of such
trading curbs at broking houses
should be considered price-sensitive
information, and whether such
decisions should be regulated
accordingly.


'They (the retail investors)
demanded investigation. They wanted
to know whether there was any foul
play and why the curb was imposed
and why SGX did not intervene,' said
David Gerald, president of the
Securities Investors Association of
Singapore (SIAS), who was also at
yesterday's briefing.


SGX's head of markets Gan Seow Ann
had contacted Mr Gerald and asked
him to talk to the investors.


Most of them 'appeared to be contra
players', said Mr Gerald. Contra
traders buy and sell stocks within
three days without having to pay any
cash up front, aiming to make a
profit without using capital.


'They're unhappy about the fact that
a trading curb was imposed and
suddenly the price fell. They
complained that they had lost a lot
of money,' he said.


Investment company Uni-Asia listed
on SGX on Aug 17. After a lacklustre
start, its share price began to
climb rapidly late last month, more
than tripling from 78 cents on Sept
27 to $2.50 on Friday last week.
Then on Monday the price hit an
intra-day high of $2.79 before
plunging to close at $1.95.


The sudden collapse was attributed
to broking houses imposing
restrictions requiring customers to
put cash up front to trade the
counter.


Yesterday, Ms Yeo said the stock
'has been on our radar screen since
late September when the price
started moving up' and SGX is
continuing to monitor it for unusual
trading activity.


Pressed for details, she said: 'We
are doing what we normally do for
all companies. We don't discuss
individual investigations in public.
When we look at the trading, we will
investigate for market manipulation
or insider-trading. That's part of
our normal modus operandi.'


'We have also got in touch with the
issue manager for this counter, DBS
Bank. They have also looked into the
matter and they have not discovered
anything that requires disclosure,'
said Ms Yeo. 'There is of course the
question of was there any
manipulation. We will also
investigate those possibilities just
as we do all the time for all the
market trading.'


Mr Gerald said he will meet broking
houses on Monday to find out why
they had imposed the curbs.


Meanwhile, 'I would ask the retail
investors to be calm and allow SGX
to complete its investigations and
SIAS to look into this matter
further with the broking houses,' he
said.


'If they need legal advice, SIAS
will be more than happy to help them
... at the appropriate time.'