SECP files criminal complaint against seven investors

Individuals charged with ‘market manipulation, artificially pushing up SSIC’s share price’

KARACHI: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has filed a criminal complaint against a group of seven individual investors that “artificially pushed the share price of Silver Star Insurance Limited (SSIC) to Rs12 from Rs5 at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)”.



In a statement released on Friday, the apex regulator said that it has filed the complaint in the Karachi sessions court.

SSIC’s share price closed at Rs6.34 with no shares changing hands on Friday.

The complaint has been filed against individual investors named Ghulam Rasool, Sohail Amin Ghazi, Ali Raza, Imran Khatri, Ehtisham Rais, Muhammad Noor and Muhammad Fayyaz. All these are clients of Multiline Securities Limited (MSL).

The securities firm (MSL), however, is not found involved in the manipulation, a SECP official clarified.

The statement added, “Based on an investigation, the SECP found that the group indulged in market manipulation by generating artificial volume and placed orders in a suspicious pattern.

“Out of these orders placed, a large number of orders were cancelled before execution, giving a false impression of active trading.”



Investigation revealed that these individuals hampered free and fair mechanism of price discovery by influencing demand and supply forces to their benefit.

“It may be noted that market manipulation is a criminal offence under Section 133 of the 2015 Securities Act,” it said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2017.

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