A Company’s Brief $41 Billion Slump Followed Rush of Sell Orders
- Stock plunged as much as 83 percent in pre-market trading
- ‘Looks like a fat finger,’ says analyst at KGI Securities
This article is for subscribers only.
Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., the flagship investment firm of a 186-year-old conglomerate, plunged 83 percent before quickly recovering, with traders speculating that a fat finger error may have caused the dramatic drop.
The Singapore-listed stock sank in pre-market trading as about 167,500 shares changed hands at $10.99, compared with Wednesday’s close of $66.47. It soon recovered all those losses and ended up closing 0.5 percent higher on Thursday. The price action suggested that the plunge, which wiped out as much as $41 billion in market value, could have been caused by human error, according to four traders.