MAY is a retail stock and very much unlikely to be owned by, or even on the radar of, most institutional investors. To differentiate from
insitituional however
, there will be
sophisticated investors (individuals with sizable net assets and a degree of financial competence) already present on the register (the last top 20 I saw consisted of individuals and nominees).
Institutional investors invest by mandate (rules and objectives governing how money is to be invested, including risk, sizing, etc) and typically apply screens on their investment decisions such as:
- Sovereign risk (under sanctions, politically unstable, etc?)
- Responsibility (May excludes sectors such as weapons, tabaco, oil, etc)
- Management (background, structure, invested exposure, compensation, etc)
- Market Capitalisation / Index Constituent (is the investment within a major market index)
- Liquidity / Free float (can we buy 'sufficient' exposure and be able to exit our position, on average, within 1 / 7 / 30 days?)
- Financial metrics (revenue etc)
- etc
MAY doesn't meet many of the requirements that would be considered investment grade to most funds. That's not to say it won't, in time, lessen its risks and attract mainstream institutional investors.
Institutional traders are unlikely to bother wasting their time trying to manipulate stocks. Ignoring 1041A of the Corporations Act, it's a mug's game to try cap a stock (placing large sell orders slightly away from market in order to scare away buyers and attract selling so that you can, presumably, accumulate). For one thing, naked short selling is illegal (ASIC RG196). You first have to borrow (cover) the stock (and pay interest) or risk selling a size position in the security you are trying to accumulate. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it just seems silly. More likely, it's simply profitable to trade around the 10c price (as it moves in half cent steps and a sizeable %, which may be what a lot of retail investors are trying to do. Perhaps there is also an element of those having been trapped in the stock for some time eyeing 11 - 12c as their preferred sell price.
Just because one disagrees that another would wish to sell 'blue sky' is not sufficient cause to suspect there is conspiracy afoot.
If MAY publishes great results, then no doubt the buyers will sweep through the 'wall' of sellers. Investors will then reassess their positions and strategies. In the meantime, I guess, MAY ought to be congratulated for keeping a tight ship - with so many people involved - there doesn't seem to be anything particularly indicative in its trading.
(20min delay)