Feb. 8, 2007 (China Knowledge) – The Hong Kong stock exchange is contemplating changing its policy to allow companies to suspend trading in their shares for five to 15 minutes while they issue announcements on the internet, the South China Morning Post reported.

According to the current stock exchange rules, once a company's shares are suspended, they can only resume trading the following day, after the announcement for which the suspension was granted is published in an English and Chinese-language newspaper.

The change is likely to be introduced when the rule requiring announcements to be made in newspapers ended, probably in May.

PC maker Lenovo Group was asked by the Hong Kong stock exchange to explain why it delayed in notifying the market on Tuesday of a 3.5% stake sale by major shareholder IBM. The delay allowed the stock to slide 6.98% in the 16 minutes after the market opened before trading was finally halted. The shares rose 1.3% when trading resumed yesterday after Lenovo announced the IBM sale.