Hot stock: iFast surges more than 5.5%, prompting SGX query

SHARES of wealth management platform iFast Corp surged S$0.24 or 5.5 per cent to S$4.59 as at 9.45am on Friday, which resulted in the Singapore Exchange (SGX) issuing a query on the "unusual price movements".

The counter continued its rally to hit an intraday high of S$4.68 before easing slightly to S$4.63 as at 10.31am, up S$0.35 or 8.2 per cent, with two million shares worth S$9.2 million changing hands.

No married deals were recorded in early trade, according to Shareinvestor data.

In a bourse filing, SGX noted that this marked the fourth query issued to iFast in the past six months.

It asked if the company was aware of any possible explanation for the trading activity, including any information not previously announced, or the public circulation of information by rumours or reports. iFast was also asked to confirm its compliance with the mainboard listing rules.

iFast earlier this month announced that its assets under administration hit a record S$14.45 billion as at Dec 31, 2020. This represents a year-on-year growth of 44.5 per cent from S$10 billion and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 14.8 per cent from S$12.59 billion, said the Singapore-headquartered firm in a Jan 6 filing.

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The company was similarly queried by SGX on Jan 4 for "unusual price movements". In its response on the same day, the company noted expectation in the market that the result for the application of the digital bank licence in Singapore was to be announced by the end of last year. It said it was not aware of the outcome of the awarding of the licence at the point in time.