Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd Plunges 70.5% By Speculators

As expected, Jade Technologies fell when trading resumes today on disappointment over Asia Pacific Links' withdrawal of its S$0.225/share takeover offer for company. Asia Pacific, investment vehicle of major shareholder Anthony Soh, blames move on inability to secure funding due to collapse of Australian broker Opes Prime Group, which Soh had pledged a huge block of Jade shares to.

On 7 April 2008, SGX targets speculators and imposed trading curbs by declaring a counter a "designated security". It is when fundamentals of a company are no longer dictating how shares should move but rather, speculators gamble on how share price is certain to move. These bets can hurt genuine investors. This protection makes sure speculators will be temporarily barred from selling short.

Announcement by SGX:

"Any sale of Jade shares shall be prohibited unless the seller holds the Designated Security. A seller holds the security if, at the time of sale, he has the securities in an account maintained with CDP and produces satisfactory evidence that he owns sufficient quantities of the Designated Security in his securities account maintained with CDP. This condition is not applicable to the subsequent sale of shares that have been purchased on a contra basis.”

http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/0357d11048060bb84825735f0028e25b/7e4a086ac46f2c05482574230018b79f?OpenDocument

Jade Technologies plunges 70.5% today from S$0.22 to S$0.065 per share.