(Bloomberg) — Morgan Stanley is facing a regulatory review over a sell order of SK Hynix Inc. shares placed before it published a downgrade report, Yonhap News reported, citing unidentified industry sources.
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The Financial Supervisory Service is planning to examine whether there were unfair acts related to SK Hynix share trading, according to the Yonhap report. The regulator will also examine whether Morgan Stanley violated its obligations under the capital markets laws related to the case, it said.
The new review comes after Korea Exchange began an account analysis of Morgan Stanley over any possible irregularities in its trading of SK Hynix shares, putting it under pressure in a country where chip stock prices often see volatile moves after foreign brokerages’ rating reports.
Calls to Morgan Stanley were not answered on Sunday. The FSS declined to comment.
Following the US brokerage’s downgrade report on SK Hynix, dated Sept. 15, shares of the Korean chipmaker tumbled more than 11% last Thursday when the market reopened following the Chuseok break. They ended the day 6.1% lower.
On Sept. 13, two days before the report was published, the Seoul branch of Morgan Stanley placed an order to sell about 1.01 million shares, about three times larger than a day earlier, according to Yonhap.
Morgan Stanley cut SK Hynix to underweight from overweight and more than halved its price target to 120,000 won from 260,000 won.
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