Row grows over JSX surveillance

JAKARTA (JP): The capital market supervisory agency (Bapepam) said yesterday that Tuesday's 207 percent surge in Bank Pikko's share price was unrealistic.

The head of the agency's corporate assessment bureau, Herwidayatmo, said the rise was engineered and took advantage of the stock exchange's poor trading surveillance.

But the Jakarta Stock Exchange's (JSX) president, Cyrill Noerhadi, defended the exchange.

He said trade in Bank Pikko shares on Tuesday had not breached any trading regulations but said the exchange was "investigating the possibility of fraud behind the bank's share trading".

The JSX suspended the bank's shares at 14:23 Tuesday after its shares skyrocketed 207 percent from Rp 1,300 to Rp 4,000.

The company's shares relisted and fell Rp 50 to Rp 3,950.

The agency said the suspension came too late, giving the impression that the JSX's trading surveillance was not effective.

Cyrill said the JSX could not suspend the bank's shares earlier because it had first to consult with the agency and the bank.

"The JSX has to coordinate with the capital market authority first concerning the increase," he said.

Yesterday, the agency asked the JSX to report the chronology of trade in Bank Pikko on Tuesday, the steps the exchange took, the impact of the hike on the net working capital of securities companies involved in the trade, the supervision of trade in the bank's stocks and further steps to be taken to solve the case.

Cyrill said the JSX had called four securities companies which traded the bank's stock.

The agency said the four broking houses were Danamon Securities, Bhakti Investama, Mashil Jaya Securities and Sassoon Securities.

Danamon Securities traded 1,480,000 shares worth Rp 2.427 billion in 101 transactions. Bhakti Investama traded 1,315,000 shares worth Rp 2.175 billion in 108 transactions. Mashil Jaya Securities traded 1,333,000 shares worth Rp 2.283 billion and Sassoon Securities Indonesia 862,000 shares worth Rp 1.591 billion in 105 transactions.

Broking houses which made big purchase were Putra Saridaya Persada which traded 6,729,500 shares worth Rp 11.038 billion in 424 transactions, Danasakti which traded 4,318,000 shares worth Rp 8.566 billion in 394 transaction, Multiprakarsa Investama which traded 1,045,000 shares worth Rp 2.244 billion in 99 transactions and Bhakti Investama which traded 559,000 shares worth Rp 918,800 million in 70 transactions. (09)