Facts of market manipulation in transactions with ordinary shares of PJSC PIK-specialized homebuilder established
Based on the investigation findings, the Bank of Russia has established facts of market manipulation in transactions performed by LLC PIK-INVESTPROECT and LLC PLAZA HOLDING (hereinafter, jointly, the Companies) with ordinary shares of PJSC PIK-specialized homebuilder (ISIN RU000A0JP7J7) (hereinafter, the Shares) in on-exchange trading in the period between 4 May 2022 and 25 May 2022 (hereinafter, the Period).
According to the findings, during the Period, the Companies conducted reciprocal transactions with the Shares in the main trading mode in collusion. Such transactions resulted in significant deviations in prices, demand, supply and trading volumes.
LLC PLAZA HOLDING performed trading activity exclusively with respect to the Shares, with LLC PIK-INVESTPROECT acting as the main counterparty.
To perform the transactions, the Companies placed orders at short time intervals (in all such transactions, LLC PIK-INVESTPROECT was the buyer and LLC PLAZA HOLDING was the seller) with respect to the same aggregate volume of the Shares within the trading day, with iceberg orders being placed on behalf of LLC PLAZA HOLDING. Therefore, most Shares in this party’s orders placed in the trading system could not be viewed by other participants and appeared in the order book gradually. As a result, the aggregate volume of the Shares with which the Companies performed reciprocal transactions within the trading day was comparable, the Companies’ positions were symmetrical, and the transactions were mirrored in nature, while there were no trading days within the Period when only one of the Companies placed orders for transactions with the Shares. The Companies used the same trading scheme during the entire Period, thus distorting trading indicators and misleading good-faith investors about the true liquidity of the Shares.
Taking into account the described trading mechanism and links between the Companies, their activities have signs of collusion.
These actions are qualified as market manipulation pursuant to Clause 2 of Part 1 of Article 5 of Federal Law No.
Thus, LLC PIK-INVESTPROECT and LLC PLAZA HOLDING violated the prohibition on market manipulation established by Part 2 of Article 6 of Federal Law No.
Following the investigation, the Bank of Russia has sent binding orders to the Companies to cease and desist from similar violations in the future.
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