There were a total of 102 market inquiries undertaken in the six months between 1 July and 31 December 2013 compared to 94 in the previous six-month period, and 86 in the six months before that.
The 102 inquiries were derived from 19,255 trading alerts, with 31 of the 102 matters requiring further consideration being referred to enforcement for further investigation.
Over half of all market inquiries were related to insider trading, with ASIC achieving seven enforcement outcomes against individuals for insider trading activity.
ASIC said in the report that insider trading continues to be a key focus for ASIC, in line with its “strategic priority of fair and efficient financial markets”.
The corporate regulator said it will continue to monitor “high order-to-trade ratios, small and fleeting orders and general market noise generated by the market”.
It also said it will increase its focus on ‘client facilitation’ accounts used by market participants and look at the method by which information is handled between research analysts and listed companies.
Market manipulation was the second largest inquiry area with 21 matters requiring further consideration.
ASIC successfully achieved one outcome against Quoc Tang, who was sentenced to two years imprisonment after creating a misleading appearance in the market.
It also accepted an enforceable undertaking from National Australia Bank following an investigation into a share spike during October 2012, reported by InvestorDaily in December last year.
There were 15 matters concerning potential breaches of market integrity rules requiring further consideration, with five matters referred to enforcement.
A total of seven continuous disclosure matters were referred to enforcement for investigation, with ASIC achieving outcomes against three different companies for disclosure breaches.
