Bapepam probes 100 investors and brokers
JAKARTA (JP): The Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) is investigating around 100 parties consisting of securities firms, investors and the directors and several executives of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) over the trading of Bank Pikko shares earlier this month.
An agency executive said yesterday a 10-member special team was undertaking the investigation.
"The team, set up on April 8, consists entirely of agency officials," Herwidayatmo, head of the agency's corporate assessment bureau said yesterday.
But he added the team could not yet disclose its findings.
"The team is not only investigating the JSX directors but all parties involved in the trading of Bank Pikko," he said.
On Tuesday three JSX directors including president Cyril Noerhadi, supervision director Edwin Stamboel and trading director Mas Ahmad Daniri were questioned by the agency.
The agency also questioned several brokerage houses including Putra Saridaya Persada, Danasakti, Multiperkasa Securitas.
"Putra Saridaya Persada officials were questioned for four hours," a source who insisted on anonymity said yesterday.
Herwidayatmo said the investigation team sought to ascertain what generated the 207 percent rise in the Bank Pikko share price on April 8, the impacts of the trading on the market and whether the Bank Pikko case had affected the fairness and order of the market.
On April 8, the price of Bank Pikko shares soared from Rp 1,300 to Rp 4,000 before their trading was suspended.
He said the investigation team was endeavoring to prove if there had been any intentional cornering of Bank Pikko shares that day.
"Cornering can take place in a natural manner and it can also be engineered by certain people," he said.
The agency had hinted that cornering was responsible for the steep rise in the bank's share price.
However, Herwidayatmo said that the number of parties being investigated might increase as the directors of Bank Pikko might also be questioned.
"We have not investigated the management of Bank Pikko yet, but there is a possibility we might question them in the coming weeks," he said.
Avi G Dwipayana, the president of Trimegah Securindo who is also a member of the JSX trading committee said yesterday that his committee had proposed to the management of JSX to set clear-cut parameters for suspending the trading of shares.
"An increase or decrease of more than 30 percent in the share price within a single trading day could be set as a parameter to trigger trading suspension," he said.
On a previous occasion Cyril said that the exchange could not yet set up clear-cut guidelines for trading suspension as the characteristics of the shares for each industry and issuer were different. (09)