20 Jul 2012

Broker pays $45,000 for errors that lifted share prices

7:04 pm on 20 July 2012

Craigs Investment Partners has been censured and ordered to pay more than $45,000 after making two separate trading mistakes that led to Telecom and Rubicon stock prices soaring.

In August, a Craig's client failed to put in a price when buying 640,000 Telecom shares, resulting in the company's share price spiking nearly 24% to $3.31 each.

Then in November, the same client placed an order to buy Rubicon shares that led to its stock price spiking 48% to 58 cents each.

Both orders were cancelled, and the New Zealand Markets Disciplinary Tribunal said in an statement that they each created considerable market disruption.

Craigs admitted it failed to set the appropriate filters in place that would have stopped it from occuring, though it blamed the Rubicon mistake on its trading system provider.