Bloomberg (April 13)
A “$105 billion ‘ghost stock’ blunder” created market upheaval in Korea. An error at the South Korean brokerage Samsung Securities Co. gave employees 1,000 Samsung Securities shares each instead of 1,000 won (less than $1). “In total, the company distributed 2.83 billion shares, worth—on paper—about 112.6 trillion won. That was more than 30 times the company’s market value.” As employees sold the ghost shares, the stock price “plunged” 12% and “many retail investors got burned.”
Tags: Blunder, Brokerage, Burned, Employees, Market upheaval, Retail investors, Samsung Securities, South Korea, Stock
Wall Street Journal (December 9)
“Rather than reform the markets, Beijing wants to inflict pain on the brokers to assuage public anger over the crash.” This sort of meddling by the government helps explain why China’s financial markets remain dysfunctional. “China’s largest brokerage is now missing six of its eight top bosses” who are widely assumed to to “have been detained by police.” Numerous others have disappeared under similar circumstances. “But political interference risks repeating the boom and boost cycle. Putting brokers in prison won’t strengthen markets unless it is part of a new commitment to consistently enforce the law.”
Tags: Beijing, Brokerage, Brokers, China, Crash, Dysfunctional, Government, Markets, Public anger, Reform
