Big rise in suspicious trades

US stock and options exchanges are spotting more suspicious trading connected to high-profile deals, such as News Corp’s bid for Dow Jones, and are making more referrals to US regulators for investigation of possible insider trading.

Between January 1 and April 20 of this year, the New York Stock Exchange referred 45 potential instances of insider trading to the Securities and Exchange Commission, compared with 111 for all of last year. The NASD, which monitors Nasdaq, the American Stock Exchange and the over-the-counter markets, has not released any 2007 data. But it referred 119 instances of suspicious trading to the SEC last year, up from 102 in 2005.

» ft.com