Brokerage makes costly error on KLK trade

PETALING JAYA: A foreign brokerage is believed to have incurred a costly mistake of over RM500,000 after keying in an erroneous order for Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) shares late yesterday.

The “error”, which was relayed to Bursa Malaysia with a request for cancellation of trade was, however, turned down.

“The exchange has reviewed the request for cancellation of a KLK trade and has decided not to approve the request,” Bursa said in an update to brokers at 7.09pm yesterday.

About an hour before that, at 6.19pm, it had notified brokers: “The exchange has received a request to cancel a trade arising from a participant’s error for the stock KLK.

“The exchange will make a decision of the request and will communicate the decision to cancel the trade or otherwise to all in due course.”

The “erroneous” trade was done at RM17 (compared with the market price of RM13.70) and believed to have involved 163,000 KLK shares.

With Bursa not willing to cancel the trade, the dealer concerned and his brokerage would have to pay for those shares.

In a media release, Bursa advised that the closing benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KL Composite Index was 1,216.45 points. The initial close was 1,210.61 points.

Kumpulan Sentiasa Cemerlang Sdn Bhd research head Choong Khuat Hock said it would be unfair to reverse the order of the trade.

“It was a valid transaction according to law. There was a willing buyer and willing seller. If trade were to be subsequently cancelled, who is going to be responsible for the compensation?

“It’s strange that trade was done near the close. This could be a legitimate trading error or a deliberate attempt to boost the share price. This should, however, be determined upon a thorough investigation,” he said.

[source]

是蓄意的，還是不小心？又有誰從中獲利了呢？反正都跟我無關，在此做個記錄。