MANILA - There are no fraudulent activities in PLDT trading prior to the P48 billion budget overrun disclosure, Philippine Stock Exchange President and CEO Ramon Monzon said on Wednesday, citing results of an internal preliminary investigation.
PLDT on Friday reported a budget overrun of P48 billion, covering 2019 to 2022. Its shares declined following the disclosures.
On Monday, PLDT shares plunged nearly 20 percent.
"I’m not at liberty to tell you yet the results because the SEC has asked me to report to them...Just to assure you, without going to specifics, we did not see any indication of any fraudulent trades prior to the disclosure. We look at buying and selling and basically, a lot of transactions are institutional trades, not personal trades and mostly by foreign brokers," Monzon told ANC.
"We’ve actually looked at trading activity last Friday before the disclosure and we’re not limiting our guess inquiry or investigation on that particular day. We’re looking at the PLDT trade for the last a month and a half, about late October to last Friday," he said.
Monzon said he cannot disclose more details as the PSE has been asked to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the matter.
The SEC earlier said its Markets and Securities Regulation Department has launched an inquiry on the trading activity of PLDT.
Both the SEC and the PSE have asked the telco giant to further clarify the P48 billion overrun disclosure. Investors are also cautious in trading PLDT shares until more details are revealed, an analyst earlier said.
"We are awaiting further developments on the investigation," Monzon said.
PLDT said it is initiating a reorganization after the budget overrun was revealed.