Securities regulator's first penalty of 2021

China's top securities regulator issued its first administrative penalty for 2021 on two people for manipulating stock prices.

In a written decision, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said Xiong Mochang and Wu Guorong had manipulated the stock price of AVCON Information Technology Co listed on Shenzhen's ChiNext board, between July 24 in 2017 to June 26 in 2018.

During that period, Wu controlled 186 individual accounts and 10 institutional accounts while Xiong paid a total of 172 million yuan for the margin in three stages.

Xiong was issued with a warning and fined 2.05 million yuan, while Wu was warned and fined 1.85 million yuan. Wu was also banned from the securities market for three years.

Ironically, despite the pair’s intention to make a profit, the shares of AVCON posted slumps for several sessions during their price manipulation.

The company's stock price rose from 6.35 yuan (US$1) per share to 7.1 yuan by June 15 in 2018 but then took a nosedive to 3.81 yuan by June 26, indicating a loss to their accounts lost around 323.72 million yuan.