Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority (CMA) Sunday said it fined three firms and two chief executives a total of 400,000 Saudi riyals (Dh390,608) for violating the disclosure rules of the Arab world's largest bourse.
Arabia Pipes, Filling and Packing Materials Manufacturing. (Fipco), and Saudi Printing & Packaging (SPPC), were fined each for not informing the bourse on time about their board's decsion not to pay dividends for 2009, the CMA said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website.
The chief executive of Anaam International Holding Group was fined 50,000 riyals for revealing to the media insider information about the firm's earnings for the first quarter of 2010, the regulator said.
The CMA also fined the CEO of Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain Saudi) 50,000 riyals for telling the press insider information about the possibility of raising the firm's capital.
In recent months the kingdom's market regulator has asserted more control over the stock market, the best performing in the Arab Gulf this year so far, in an effort to stamp out manipulative and speculative trading, and attract more stable institutional and foreign investors.
The CMA issued its first prison sentence in August last year, locking up the former chairman of Bishah Agricultural Development for three months, and fined Prince Ahmad Bin Khalid Al Saud, the chairman of Saudi Chemical for disclosure violations in October.
Stringent rules
The Tadawul, as Riyadh's stock exchange is known, has long been closed to the rest of the world through stringent foreign investment rules and has remained dominated by local retail investors. Listed companies are worth about $319 billion (Dh311 billion), almost as much as the rest of the Gulf markets combined.
