On Wednesday, the Composite Index (CI) of the KLSE was down about 17 points at lunch break and was still in negative territory most of the afternoon. However, during the last one minute before closure (yes, one minute ) several big investment funds purchased index-linked stocks to push up the CI to a gain of 16.74 points for the day! It was as if the big institutional investors had telepathic communication, as together, they gobbled up millions of shares using their contributors' money.

So the targetted counters moved up, as did the CI, but yesterday, it was already 14 points down by 10am and the counters that were 'pushed up' using public funds, all lost.

While there is a law against 'acting in concert' (when a few shareholders of a company get together and try to do things to a particular counter), is there no law against a few big institutions trying to influence the whole stock market?

This is a good chance for the KLSE and the Securities Commission (SC) to prove that they will investigate and take action on suspected manipulations of the stock market. Only then will the public appreciate KLSE's new revised listing requirements and the SC's masterplan, and believe that there is a move towards transparency and corporate governance.