- Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) reported bank Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) to Hong Kong’s financial regulator over a series of block trades, Financial Times reported citing people familiar with the matter.
- As part of an “informal” discussion, Goldman alerted the territory’s Securities and Futures Commission three years ago about share price drops in a few Hong Kong-listed companies.
- One of the people said the fall occurred shortly before Morgan Stanley brought blocks of shares to the market. “It’s noteworthy to file a complaint on a competitor,” the person said.
- According to Bloomberg data, Morgan Stanley executed nine block trade transactions for WuXi between 2020 and 2021.
- There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by WuXi.
- One person close to Goldman said there had been frequent conversations within the bank’s equity capital markets division about “movements in stocks where Morgan Stanley subsequently executed block trades” and scrutiny over the bank’s record of winning block trade deals.
- In February, the Chinese securities regulator ordered Morgan Stanley to provide the U.S. block trades probe information.
- Morgan Stanley disclosed that since 2019, it has been responding to requests for information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about its block-trading business.
- Price Action: GS shares closed at $341.07, and MS stock closed at $91.00 on Wednesday.
- Photo by Tumisu from Pixaby
