Unfair equity trading grows 37 pct in 2016: watchdog

SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) -- The number of unfair trading cases in South Korea's equity market reported to the nation's financial watchdog increased more than 37 percent on-year in 2016, as it tightened monitoring and supervision, data showed Wednesday.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it caught a total of 208 suspected unfair trade practices, such as insider trading, stock manipulation and fraud, during the year, up 37.7 percent from a year earlier.

Among them, 68 incidents occurred on the main KOSPI market, 130 on the secondary KOSDAQ and 10 on the derivatives market.

The FSS has completed investigations into 172 cases and referred 104 of them to state prosecutors. It took administrative measures, including fines in 45 other cases, with 23 ones cleared.

By type, the use of undisclosed information topped the list of malpractices brought to the prosecution with 39 cases, followed by 34 cases of stock price rigging.

The FSS said it will continue a crackdown on unfair securities trading in close cooperation with other relevant authorities like the Financial Services Commission, the prosecution and the Korea Exchange.

The watchdog pays up to 2 billion won (US$1.7 million) in cash rewards for providing information on the violation of capital market rules.

lcd@yna.co.kr
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