TTI query, trade caution a regulatory overkill?

IT APPEARS that in the wake of last October's penny stock crash and the measures to strengthen the market that have been proposed since, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) may be going into misplaced regulatory overkill. One case that stands out is TT International (TTI) - the company having been queried on Monday about a surge in volume traded of its shares, which was then followed by a "Trade With Caution" warning.

Before going into details, note that when the exchange explained why it did not query Olam International during Olam's six-week-long, 40 per cent share price surge, it said over the weekend that it takes into account several factors when deciding whether price movements are unusual.

"These include macroeconomic factors, market sentiment, specific industry outlook and trends, company financials and company developments and analyst reports. SGX will issue a public query when trading activities cannot be explained by these factors," said the exchange.