Eleven securities firms have asked economic crime suppression police to investigate irregularities in the trading of More Return Plc (MORE) shares and take action against those involved.
Representatives of the 11 firms on Wednesday petitioned Pol Maj Gen Phuthidej Boonkraphue, commander of the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECSD), asking for an investigation into people involved in the unusual trading of MORE stocks that led the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) to suspend trading of the energy, water and property-related company on Monday.
Pol Maj Gen Phuthidej said Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, has assigned his division to launch a fact-finding probe into the irregular trading of MORE shares. Investigators would question damaged parties separately and compile the evidence. The investigation may take time as there were many documents and details, the ECSD commander said.
Police investigators said representatives of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier filed a complaint with Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop about abnormal buy and sell orders for MORE shares. The CIB chief set up an investigation team.
The irregular trading occurred on Thursday last week, when MORE shares were up 4.3% from prior trading. It had a trading value of 7.14 billion baht. Its trading value was just 360 million baht on average during the previous 30 days.
During the opening of the market on Nov 10 the trading volume was as high as 1.5 billion shares, worth almost 4.3 billion baht.
Abnormal trading orders on the buying side were mostly from one buyer through several member companies at a price of 2.90 baht.
On the selling side, there were a lot of orders close to the bid price. The sell orders ranged from 70 million shares per person to about 600 million shares per person.
Less than 20 minutes after the opening of the market, the price of MORE shares declined to its floor at 1.95 baht. The SET notified investors about abnormal trading of MORE shares.
On Nov 11, MORE shares opened at 1.37 baht. The trading volume was light, just 134 million baht after the 7 billion baht the previous day.
On Monday, trading in MORE shares was suspended.
Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop said on Wednesday that the affected firms believed there was fraud in the trading of MORE shares and suspected one seller and 20 buyers were linked or were the same network. The investigation would be thorough and find out the facts of the matter.
The CIB chief said he would report on the progress of the probe and promised to accelerate it. The investigation team would call people to testify, particularly the seller and all 20 buyers. The investigators would also look into the money trail of people involved and investigate whether such trading of shares amounted to manipulation of the stock.
Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop believed the buyer and the sellers of MORE shares were still in the country.