Bell Equipment soars after trading mistake

The following trade came at 2.28pm, snapping up 2000 shares for R18.

But this was no sudden steep market loss and windfall gain, according to the JSE - rather it was just a trading mistake.

"In this particular instance (the broker) came to us and pointed out that it was an error," Richard Bone, assistant GM of surveillance at the JSE, said yesterday (10 January 2012). "As far as we are concerned, the trade stands ... a pillar of the market is certainty of trading," he said.

The broker remained anonymous to the market, he said, and when there was a mis-trade, what the broker did thereafter was purely for "his or his client's circumstances". The JSE acts only within certain "exceptional criteria" as prescribed in exchange rules, Bone said.

Bell Equipment saw headline earnings per share rocket 1066,7% in the year to last June, to 105c from 9c previously.

But CEO Gary Bell was bemused by the more than 47% jump in the share price in the space of a few hours yesterday. "There's no good reason behind it. I can't tell you what's going on. I thought there had to be some sort of error at the stock exchange."

Bell Equipment's rapid growth has been spurred by renewed mining activity.

In a trading statement late last month, it said its results for the year to last month were expected to show an improvement of at least 20% from those reported in the earlier 12-month period, due to improved trading conditions, particularly improved demand from the mining sector.

Source: Business Day