Set Scandal: ‘manipulated’ Stocks Revealed

[george]

SET SCANDAL: ‘Manipulated’ stocks revealed

TPI, Natural Park and Hemaraj named; legal action to be based on SEC probe

BANGKOK: The Stock Exchange of Thailand has identified three listed companies suspected of having their share prices recently manipulated by a handful of investors.

They are: Thai Petrochemical Industry (TPI), Natural Park, and Hemaraj Land Development.

TPI, one of the country’s largest petrochemical groups, has been undergoing a financial rehabilitation and recently tapped the market for more capital.

Natural Park and Hemaraj are both property developers.

An informed Finance Ministry source said the names of the three listed companies had been submitted to Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak and the matter would be raised with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin has been vocal about taking selective action against stock manipulators rather than blanket measures for fear of unnecessarily dampening market confidence.

Any legal action against the suspected manipulators would have to be based on the findings of a Securities and Exchange Commis-sion (SEC) investigation.

The SEC earlier clamped down on the buying and selling of stock on the same day by ordering the commencement of partial ad-vanced cash payments from next Monday.

It reasoned that the same-day net-settlement value had become too big, accounting for a third of daily market turnover, which has been averaging Bt60 billion recently.

The situation was seen as untenable, while any action against stock manipulators was considered a separate issue.

The Finance Ministry source said the suspected manipulators in question were aware they were being targeted by authorities and had begun unwinding their portfolios for fear their wealth would be seized.

Their names could be revealed shortly as a confidence-building measure for the battered stock exchange.

But government-sponsored mutual funds or mutual funds operated by government financial institutions are still expected to be ordered and placed on standby to shore up the market in case it is initially hit hard when the names of the suspected manipulators are disclosed publicly.

“The SET [stock Exchange of Thailand] and SEC need to act with haste, since further delay would undermine the market further and put pressure on other listed firms,” the source said.

The SET index closed yesterday at 605.29 points, down 8.14 on the day. Turnover was Bt17.5 billion.

--The Nation --

[Butterfly]

The SET has always been manipulated. This is not news. Sometimes it's the overseas Thais through the Tawanese accounts, sometimes it's the locals.

Someone here posing as some expert said the other day that such manipulation didn't exist and couldn't exist. I guess he was wrong.

[Guest ka1234]

Sounds like someone is trying to contain the damage... I would say there is a bunch more that has been manipulated.

I guess they only go after manipulators that don't pay "lunch money" to the watchdogs.

[Butterfly]

Sounds like someone is trying to contain the damage... I would say there is a bunch more that has been manipulated.

I guess they only go after manipulators that don't pay "lunch money" to the watchdogs.

That's for sure. In 1997, a number of "insiders" withdrew billions in Thai Bath before the currency devaluation before coming back with the same billions with a 100% profit on currency exchange