The last time I checked, regulators have yet to come out with its report on the P48-billion budget overrun of telco giant PLDT, although initial findings say there are no indications of fraudulent transactions.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) are particularly looking at possible insider trading after PLDT’s share prices rallied just before it disclosed the budget scandal.
Market investors are awaiting the results of the investigation.
Only an independent investigation by regulators and their final report can determine what really happened.
In the meantime, as we await the final judgement on PLDT, regulators can also look at the possible insider trading activities in other listed companies just very recently.
The business grapevine is abuzz with such observations. Many noticed quick movements in the share prices of some listed companies prior to big announcements lately – from acquiring a stake in this or that or making a tender offer.
Their respective charts would show blue lines recently – signs of how their share prices rallied and moved up prior to their respective announcements.
I hope the PSE is looking at these companies for insider trading.
And by the way, some deals are still ongoing so let’s wait and see whose charts will suddenly see a spike in prices.
Of course, it’s not to say that every unusual spike in prices was due to insider trading. Others may be due to honest-to-goodness speculative bets…
