The message from the ASX is clear. Listed entities should
consider seeking trading halts more often, to stop uninformed
trading and facilitate compliance with continuous disclosure
obligations.
Yet the response from listed entities has been lukewarm at best.
Heavyweights such as BHP Billiton, Telstra and the Australian
Banker's Association have expressed concern that, given the
negative connotations generally associated with trading halts,
"a push by the stock exchange for greater use of trading
halts ahead of big announcements could unintentionally wipe
billions of dollars off the market".1
However, there is evidence that the use of trading halts is
becoming more frequent and more common, particularly amongst
smaller companies. But, as Patrick Durkin, journalist at the
Australian Financial Review and deputy editor of the Financial
Review's BOSS Magazine, notes:
