Knight Trading Group Shares Fall By More Than Half (Update2)
By David Wells
Jersey City, New Jersey, June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Knight Trading Group Inc. shares fell by more than half before trading was halted. The stock was the most active issue before the 9:30 a.m. New York time opening of the regular Nasdaq Stock Market session.
Knight, the biggest market maker in Nasdaq stocks, on Thursday named Thomas Joyce, 47, from Sanford C. Bernstein Cos. as chief executive officer, ending a five-month search. Shares of the company, which is based in Jersey City, New Jersey, fell $3.35 to $3 in trading of 2.8 million shares.
``I am sure the company will come out and say what is going on or defend itself,'' said David Katz, who helps manage $850 million at Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. and owns shares of Knight. ``Only time will tell.''
Katz said the situation might be similar to when Knight Trading shares tumbled 14 percent on March 1, after postings on Internet message boards said one of the firm's traders was arrested. The company said no arrest took place and that it wasn't under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the FBI.
Trading was halted at 8:54 a.m. to allow the company to issue a statement. Knight spokesman Margaret Wyrwas didn't immediately return a call for comment.
Joyce had been head of global trading for Bernstein's institutional brokerage business since December. He previously spent 14 years at Merrill Lynch & Co. overseeing electronic trading, and worked on the company's acquisition of Knight rival Herzog, Heine & Geduld Inc. in 2000.
Knight has had two interim CEOs since the departure of Ken Pasternak in December. The company has lost money in two of the past three quarters amid declines in trading and last year's switch to pricing stocks in one-penny increments. It also cut 8 percent of its staff since March. |
