Shanghai Stock Exchange investigated 280 suspect transactions in
2006, said a report released by the bourse on Monday, a low figure
given the volume of exchanges on one of the world's hottest stock
markets.
Trying to put as good a slant on things as possible, the bourse
said that supervisors telephoned managers of relevant companies 356
times to call their attention to dubious transactions and talked
with senior officials of ten listed companies.
They also assisted probes by the China Securities Regulatory
Commission into 21 cases, said the report.
The bourse strengthened pre-transaction risk control last year
and restricted trading of 1,363 nonstandard accounts belonging to
twenty companies to weed out corporate accounts masquerading as
individual accounts.
The bourse suspended transactions of ten listed companies and
stopped six companies trading.
The low investigation figures cited in the report point to the
difficulty of monitoring big shareholders and specialized
investment institutions.
According to the report, it is also difficult to oversee
qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) and prevent
insider dealings.
The introduction of new financial derivatives have aggravated
transaction risks and raised market supervision requirements.
Supervisors need to intelligently handle trans-market issues,
the report claimed.
Last month a Shanghai-listed company suspected of rigging stock
prices with a bogus contract announcement, was banned from trading.
This indicated the authorities were trying to take a tougher stance
on malpractice, said analysts.
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2007)