SFC Freezes Accounts Over Manipulation Probe

The Securities and Futures Commission has ordered nine brokerages to freeze their clients' accounts in relation to suspected market-manipulation activities.

The action is linked to the firm China Ding Yi Feng, whose shares grew nearly 9,000 percent over the last five years and had attracted scepticism among investment analysts.

The watchdog didn't reveal the number of accounts or the amount of money involved, but the trades in question involved shares of China Ding Yi Feng between last year and early this year.

The SFC said the brokerages themselves are not the target of the investigation, and they are cooperating with the ongoing probe that began less than a year ago.

Trading in China Ding Yi Feng shares was suspended earlier this month.

The firm had been listed in Hong Kong since 2002, and its shares were traded via the Shenzhen stock connect link.

The SFC said suspicious trading had driven share prices to an "irrationally" high level.

They rose from HK$8.57 at the end of 2017 to their previous close of HK$23.10.

China Ding Yi Feng compares its chairman, Sui Guangyi, to Warren Buffett and George Soros for his investment skills and claims he uses an investment strategy which combines Eastern wisdom with modern investment. (Additional reporting by Reuters)