A trading halt is just a regulatory obligation. I have explained...

A trading halt is just a regulatory obligation. I have explained this a few times before, although it is absolutely basic investment knowledge.

So many people think, "Holy cow, a trading halt! It must be something!". That, however, is nonsense. A trading halt is just an instrument to halt the trading until an announcement (big or small) can be made with complete information.

When a company knows something that is definitive, and all circumstances and negotiations are final, they do not need a trading halt. However, if some fine tuning is needed until an announcement can be made, they must to use a trading halt. It is their obligation. It is called continuous disclosure. This is because once something becomes known inside the company, this information might be used for insider trading, and by ASX regulations this would be illegal. So the company immediately must announce or request a trading halt if they cannot finally announce yet. Companies are obliged to announce immediately if there is any substantial news.

See paragraph 17.1.1 from the official ASX documentation, chapter "Trading halts, suspension, removal" , which is found here: http://www.asx.com.au/documents/rules/Chapter17.pdf

You can read even more about Continuous Disclosure here:
http://www.asx.com.au/documents/about/abridged-continuous-disclosure-guide-clean-copy.pdf