Ann: Trading Halt, page-20

You got that right! People need to remember that for any company not presently paying dividends it is nearly free for large financial institutions to manipulate the share prices in any direction they want them to go. For example, a big institution could reduce the volume of trading of a stock by taking a sufficiently large equity swap position. The lack of volume gets the stock kicked off the ASX-300. That results in even less volume, much less volume.

Once that happens the price manipulations can really begin. Tiny numbers of shares sold at the close of trading a prices well below the average will crash the price. Alternatively, tiny numbers of shares bought at prices well above average at the end of the day will jack up the price. This can also be done during the trading day during periods of especially low volume. Not to mention that related entities can trade those share between each other to paint any picture on the ticker that they want.

Countermeasures that genuinely profitable companies can take are paying decent dividends and defensive share buybacks.