A halt in trading does not reflect upon the reputation of management

of a company nor upon the quality of its securities.

Indeed, trading halts for material information announcements

are usually made at the request of the listed company involved.

Market Surveillance normally attempts to contact a company

before imposing a halt in trading.

Requests for Trading Halts

It is not appropriate for a listed company to request a trading

halt in a security if a material announcement is not going to be

made forthwith.

When a listed company (or its advisors) requests a trading halt

for an announcement, the company must provide assurance

to Market Surveillance that an announcement is imminent. The

nature of this announcement and the current status of events

shall be disclosed to Market Surveillance, so the staff can assess

the need for and appropriate duration of a trading halt.

Length of Trading Halts

When a halt in trading is necessary, trading is normally interrupted

for a period of less than two hours. In the normal

course, the announcement should be made immediately after

the halt is imposed and trading will resume within approximately

one hour of the dissemination of the announcement

through major news wires.

A trading halt in a security shall not normally extend for a

period longer than 24 hours from the time the halt was imposed.

This is a maximum time period intended to address unusual

situations. The only exception to the 24-hour time limit is where

Market Surveillance determines that resumption of trading

would have a significant negative impact on the integrity of

the market.

Failure to Make an Announcement Immediately

If trading is halted but an announcement is not immediately

forthcoming as expected, Market Surveillance will establish a

reopening time, which shall not be later than 24 hours after the

time that the halt was imposed (excluding non-business days).

If the company fails to make an announcement, Market

Surveillance will issue a notice stating that trading was halted

for dissemination of news or for clarification of abnormal

trading activity, that an announcement was not immediately

forthcoming, and that trading will therefore resume at a

specific time.

When Market Surveillance advises a company in applying

the reopening of trading the company should reconsider, in

light of its responsibility to make timely disclosure of all

material information, whether it should issue a statement prior

to the reopening becoming effective to clarify why it requested

a trading halt (if this is the case) and why it is not able to make

an announcement prior to the reopening of trading.