A 66 Points Mistake

How to energise the whole market? By doing a huge mistake on possibly 10 index stocks. This is the grapevine, so don't hold me to this. It is common place for foreign brokers to put "market on close" (MOC) orders, usually to cover the futures positions or something. It could be sells or buys, a hedging strategy.

IOI Corp went down from RM5.00 to RM3.75 in the blink of an eye around 4.40pm. Same goes for Sime Darby which went to RM7.00, you can also check on Petronas Gas, DIGI, IJM ... KLK was super for those who got it at RM15.00. Those who have strong queues on the buy side may only see minor dislocation in their prices. The more illiquid ones got whacked.


Someone probably wanted to go home early and just hit market sell at 4.40pm, a genuine mistake and a timing issue, should be at 4.45pm ... maybe a new expat VP sent to cover Malaysia markets as senior trader
 ; ). Instead of happy hours, he/she can drown his/her sorrows and can expect to have a nicely brewed coffee at the SC on Monday.


This event did affect many other highly traded counters as buyers shrivelled on seeing the 66 points drop, and people who were long also dumped first before asking questions. Sigh ...