Bursa rejects bid to cancel erroneous trade in KLK

Bursa Malaysia Bhd has rejected a request from a market participant to cancel an erroneous trade that caused shares of Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) to soar yesterday.

Analysts and dealers were stumped when the plantation firm's share price rose 24 per cent to RM17 in the last 10 minutes of trade, on heavy volume, for no apparent reason.

Even a company official seemed surprised by the sudden share movement.

Not long after the market closed, however, Bursa Malaysia said it received a request to cancel a trade for the stock, arising from a "participant's error".Trade with buyers and suppliers from around the world on Alibaba.com!

It later told brokers that it had reviewed the request and decided not to approve it.

Dealers believe the dealing error came from a foreign brokerage house.

Bursa Malaysia, in a press statement, said KLK's sudden share price jump was brought about by "matching of market orders at the pre-closing phase of the day".

This resulted in a change in the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index which was not reflected until after the market's close, due to "verification measures" taken on the increase in KLK's share price, it said.

The exchange clarified that the index's closing yesterday was 1,216.45 points.