Philippine bourse sees no fraudulent trading in PLDT shares

THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said on Wednesday (Dec 21) there was no indication of fraudulent trading in PLDT shares before the company’s disclosure of budget overruns, with most of the deals carried out by institutional traders.

“Just to assure you, without going to specifics, we did not see any indication of any fraudulent trades prior to the disclosure,” PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon told ANC, citing the outcome of an internal investigation.

PLDT’s share price dropped more than 19 per cent on Monday, extending a 4.2 per cent decline on Friday, triggered by a selloff ahead of the company’s disclosure of budget overruns totalling 48 billion pesos (S$1,176 million) over the past years.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday it has started an investigation into the selloff, and that it had ordered the PSE to submit initial reports on its own inquiry.

“We looked at buying and selling and basically, a lot of transactions are institutional trades, not personal trades and mostly by foreign brokers,” Monzon said, adding the PSE was including in its probe PLDT trades from October.

PLDT’s chief financial officer sits on the PSE board.

SEE ALSO

Philippines’ largest telco PLDT slumps 19% after billions of pesos in budget overrun revealed

DECODING ASIA

Navigate Asia in
a new global order

Get the insights delivered to your inbox.

In a statement sent to the media on Wednesday, PLDT said it “will continue to cooperate fully” with regulators.

Shares in PLDT, which is partly owned by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and Hong Kong’s First Pacific, were up more than 5.0 per cent as of 0705 GMT. REUTERS