Shares in Japanese Internet company Livedoor saw regular trade for the first time in more than a week on today, finishing down 80 per cent from their closing price on January 16th just before prosecutors raided the company.
Volatility was high as the shares initially changed hands at 155 yen in afternoon and briefly rose as high as 164 yen. They then reversed the course to close at 137 yen, down 22.2 percent from Tuesday's settlement price.
Ken Masuda, senior dealer in equities at Shinko Securities, said day traders were buying the stock on hopes for a short-term gain. "There are a lot of people who love to play money games. A stock that has fallen this far, from 700 yen to 150 yen, will bounce back once. That's just common sense," he said.
The Livedoor raid sparked chaos on the Tokyo stock market over the following days, sending share prices plunging and threatening to swamp the exchange's computer system with sell orders.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange has placed Livedoor shares on a special watch list, a step that could lead to a delisting.
The company's high-profile founder Takafumi Horie was arrested on Monday on suspicion of breaking securities laws.
Concern that heavy trade in the shares could overburden the Tokyo Stock Exchange's computer systems had prompted the world's second-biggest bourse to shorten Livedoor's trading time to 90 minutes a day as of today.
Livedoor, having fallen by its daily limit in each of the previous six sessions, is now cheap to trade as its minimum trading unit is one share, attracting short-term dealers and speculators.
Meanwhile, fund managers at home and overseas have lined up sell orders for tens of millions of Livedoor shares, given the increased risk that the shares will be delisted.