Goldman Sachs has paid a penalty of $35,000 in order to comply with an infringement notice given to the firm by the MDC.
The error came about as a result of the Goldman Sachs designated trading representative (DTR) keying in ‘APE’ (the AP Eager ASX ticker code) instead of ‘NAB’.
“On 17 May 2012, a client of Goldman Sachs, instructed Goldman Sachs to buy 2,800 AP Eagers Limited fully paid ordinary shares having ASX code ‘APE’ at ‘Best Carefully’ (Initial Order),” said ASIC.
“The Goldman Sachs DTR was to also work a number of other unrelated Orders, including an ‘at-market’ Order to buy National Australia Bank Limited fully paid ordinary shares having ASX code ‘NAB’,” the regulator said.
“During the Pre-Open Session State, the Goldman Sachs DTR instead keyed-in an Order to buy 2,800 APE at $29.13 and submitted this into the ASX Trading Platform (Relevant Order) – by mistakenly thinking the ASX code had been keyed-in as NAB when in fact it was APE,” said ASIC.
As a result, the price of APE increased from $14.85 to $29 – an increase of 95 per cent.
Eight minutes after the trading error took place, the Goldman Sachs DTR contacted the ASX by email and the transactions were cancelled.
Goldman Sacs did not contest the matter.
