Fat finger error sends wrong company's shares soaring
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Shares in a little-known electronics maker shot up following yesterday's Google-Motorola deal, after an investor apparently mistook it for Foxconn
Shares in a Chinese electronics manufacturer shot up by almost 500% earlier today after a investor mistakenly attempted to cash in on the Google-Motorola acquisition.
EVOC Intelligent Technology's share price rose rapidly after the market opened this morning, after an investor bought 12,000 shares, the Bloomberg news agency has reported.
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However, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange later revealed that that the shares had been bought in error.
The confusion seems to have derived from the fact that EVOC's stock ticker symbol (2308) is very similar to that of Foxconn (2038), the Chinese manufacturer whose clients include Motorola.
"You have to assume it’s a fat-finger trading error,” said Hong Kong trader Gavin Parry told Bloomberg, referring to a typo made when using an electronic trading system.
Fat finger errors are not an uncommon occurrence. In February 2011, the value of the Canadian dollar briefly fell against the dollar after an inter-bank transfer was incorrectly entered, while a 'fat finger' error was blamed for wild swings in the share prices of various companies on the London Stock Exchange including BT.
