KUALA LUMPUR (April 23): Proprietary day trading (PDT) and intraday short selling (IDSS) of Ekovest Bhd and Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWCity) shares have been suspended for the rest of the day today, after denials by both companies about their involvement in the multi-billion ringgit Bandar Malaysia project sent their share prices plunging by more than 15% within the first trading hour.

Both Ekovest and IWCity opened lower this morning and slid further, and remained on Bursa Securities' top decliner list as of writing.

Ekovest fell as much as 18 sen or 18.6% to a low of 79 sen this morning. It was last traded at 84.5 sen ahead of the suspension, after a total of 131.65 million shares were traded.

IWCity, meanwhile, saw its share price plunge as much as 23 sen or 17.4% to RM1.09. The stock was last done at RM1.15 — still down 17 sen or 12.9% — with a turnover of 115.59 million.

Bursa Securities said short selling under PDT and IDSS will only be enabled at 8.30am tomorrow (April 24).

IWCity is a subsidiary of Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH), which owns 60% in IWH-CREC Sdn Bhd.

Ekovest and IWH share a common shareholder in Malaysian tycoon Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo.

IWCity said in a stock exchange filing yesterday evening, "Save for the press release issued by the Prime Minister's Office on April 19, 2019 titled Government to Restate Bandar Malaysia Project, in which the name of our sister company, IWH-CREC Sdn Bhd, was mentioned, the company wishes to clarify that IWCity is not involved in the reinstatement of the Bandar Malaysia project."

Ekovest, whose shares hit limit up yesterday, issued a similar statement to Bursa.

Both the companies went on to advise investors to exercise caution and to make informed decisions in the trading of their shares and warrants.