Fidelity Life Assurance, ABC Holdings and Zimplow have been cleared of price manipulation charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SECZ).

In a statement today, SECZ chief executive officer Tafadzwa Chinamo said following engagement with the relevant parties, the three companies' trades on December 30 2013 had been found to be genuine. 

"Based on the analysis of trading and settlement statistics provided by the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, SECZ investigations and interviews with concerned securities dealing firms, fund managers and underlying clients, all trades in the respective companies recorded on 30 December 2013 were proved to be genuine," said Chinamo.

SECZ had instituted an investigation into the share price movements of the three companies after substantial increases in the stocks' trading prices on the stated day.

In respect of Fidelity Life Assurance Ltd shares, SECZ said "all the bids on that day were supported by genuine orders and all the trades recorded on the day settled successfully."

"With regards to ABC Holdings Ltd and Zimplow Holdings Ltd," said the regulator, "preliminary investigations showed that there were no sufficient grounds to suspect irregular trading of stocks on the day."

Tags: ZSE, Manipulation,