The Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (HANFA) on Monday ordered the Zagreb Stock Exchange to temporarily and without a delay suspend trading in the shares of the INA oil and gas group until the the agency decides otherwise.
HANFA said that the proceedings of urgent and immediate monitoring of INA was launched on 5 May, following regulations of the Capital Market Act.
On May 18 HANFA established that the Hungarian oil company MOL had manipulated the market, contrary to a ban from Article 465 of the Capital Market Act. HANFA said in a statement that MOL had manipulated the market with its general offer for the purchase of stock in Croatian oil company INA, published on 15 December 2010, and later through the media, by deliberately spreading information which gave false and misleading signals for the purpose of acquiring INA stock.
HANFA said in the statement today that regular trading in INA shares was not possible until it was established if INA met its legal obligations, concerning the treatment of delicate information which could influence the price of INA shares, as required by the Capital Market Act.
To protect investors and insurers, HANFA suspended trading in INA shares on several occasions - from March 28 to April 1, from April 4 to April 8, from April 28 to May 20, and now until the end of the urgent monitoring procedure.
