THE China Securities Regulatory Commission will launch a probe into the alleged illegal sales of previously non-tradable shares by two big shareholders of a Shanghai-listed company, Shanghai Securities News said yesterday.
The stock regulator is investigating Sichuan Pingyuan Industrial Development Co and Mianyang Yiduoyuan Real Estate Development Co after they disposed of more than 1 percent shares of Sichuan Hongda Chemical Industry Co in late April.
They have been banned from selling the shares of Hongda for a month from April 30 to May 28 by the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
On April 20, the stock regulator issued a rule to require big shareholders to move to a block trading platform if they hope to sell more than 1 percent of a listed firm's total shares within a month. Sichuan Pingyuan and Mianyang Yiduoyuan were among the first batch to be punished for violating the rule.
The newspaper said yesterday a retail branch under the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp sold 3,77 million shares, or 1.55 percent of the total shares, of Shanghai Kaikai Industry Co Ltd between April 21 to May 7.
The account of the branch under the Sinopec was banned from trading any shares on the Shanghai bourse for three months and the case has been reportedly sent to the CSRC for investigation. It was the latest incidence of companies infringing rules to conduct bulk selling of shares freed up from the expiry of their lock-up period.
On Wednesday, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange also restricted trading of Fujian Henglian Co Ltd for 15 trading days after it was found to sell 1.19 percent of total shares of Fujian Guanfu Modern Household Wares Co Ltd.