PROBE BY JSE SUGGESTED
Woolworths pre-update trade in shares queried
A number of investors have raised suspicions about possible irregularities in Woolworths share trading ahead of the release of its worst interim trading update in recent memory. The retailer’s share price began sliding three days before it told the market on Thursday it expected headline earnings to drop as much as 7.5% to up to 247.2c for the 26 weeks to the end of December. Woolworths’ share price dropped 8.15% to R65.23 between Monday and Wednesday. Most of the retailer’s shares changed hands on Wednesday — the day before the update — with 13.7-million shares traded. Piet Viljoen, chairman of asset manager RECM, asked on social networking site Twitter if the JSE would investigate "one of its bigger clients". He was responding to a tweet from an investor who raised concern about the share trades that occurred ahead of the update. However, Just One Lap trader and founder Simon Brown said there was no clear evidence of irregularities. "[The] bad update was expected and it was due th...
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