Recently, the share price of Bright World(BW) came under further pressure as a result of a letter sent to its directors from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), referring to a possible breach of section 203 of the Securities and Futures Act. What is section 203 of the Securities and Futures Act? Section 203 (Continuous disclosure) shall apply to — (1)(a) an entity the securities of which are listed for quotation on a securities exchange; (b) a trustee of a business trust, where the securities of the business trust are listed for quotation on a securities exchange; or (c) a responsible person of a collective investment scheme, where the units of the collective investment scheme are listed for quotation on a securities exchange, if the entity, trustee or responsible person is required by the securities exchange under the listing rules or any other requirement of the securities exchange to notify the securities exchange of information on specified events or matters as they occur or arise for the purpose of the securities exchange making that information available to a securities market operated by the securities exchange. (2) The persons specified in subsection (1) (a), (b) or (c) shall not intentionally, recklessly or negligently fail to notify the securities exchange of such information as is required to be disclosed by the securities exchange under the listing rules or any other requirement of the securities exchange. (3) Notwithstanding section 204, a contravention of subsection (2) shall not be an offence unless the failure to notify is intentional or reckless. Comments:

Basically, what section 203 implies is that any price sensitive information must be announced through the SGX first before going through other media channels. There must not be any news leak prior to any announcement so that no parties can gain an advantage by making use of the price sensitive information. Read more...