CSE reports 61 market manipulation cases-

Draft bill before cabinet to strengthen law 

Amunugama

By Saman Indrajith-November 23, 2013, 

Deputy Finance Minister Dr Sarath Amunugama told Parliament yesterday that 67 cases of insider dealings and 61 market manipulation cases like ‘Pump and Dump’ had been reported from Colombo Stock Exchange.

Responding to a question asked by UNP Colombo District MP, Ravi Karunanayake, the Minister said that during the period from 2008 to 2012, the investigation unit of the Securities and Exchange Commission has found 182 instances of suspected dealings in the CSE. Of them 38 had been investigated.

Since January 2013, the SEC investigators had noticed 10 instances of abnormal transactions suspected to be inside dealings.

Asked to reveal the names of the companies that involved in those cases, the minister refused to give the names saying that the cases had been filed against individuals and not against companies.

Asked whether the existing laws are sufficient to overcome the manipulators in the CSE, the Minister responded that the provisions of the SEC regulations introduced under the Gazette No 1215/2 dated December 18, 2001 and added the cases related to artificial influencing of CSE shares would be heard in criminal courts. 

The Minister said that action was being taken to amend the existing laws to curb market manipulations in the CSE. A draft bill and related Cabinet paper prepared by the SEC have been forwarded for the approval of the Cabinet of ministers to make the cases against market manipulations to be heard before not only in criminal courts but also in civil courts.