The latest method to manipulate stocks in the past 18 months has been for dodgy companies to issue PP’s (yes yes they say its to raise capital, but just look at who the shareholders are) to large investors, which essentially provides to them a massive # of shares for them to control the demand/supply on the market. The Thai SEC finally woke up and is now looking to prevent such practices from happening in the future.

• Based on the average market price on the date when companies announced the PP offering, Simat Technologies (SIMAT) offered a 90% discount to the specific investors who subscribed to its capital increase shares, Max Metal Corporation (MAX) offered an 80% discount, and CyberPlanet Interactive (CYBER) offered a 46% discount.
• Small-cap companies sometimes resort to PP offerings at discount prices for wealthy investors. Such share offerings typically trigger a buying spree by retail investors after the plan is announced, with PP buyers reaping another windfall from the share price run-up.
• SET data indicated SIMAT’s PP buyers gained 33-970% when the shares started trading on the local bourse, MAX’s PP buyers earned 960-1,820% and CYBER’s buyers gained 494-1,150%.

Source: Bangkok Post