Dato' Desmond has a public listed company, Big Cheat Berhad. The share price in Big Cheat Berhad

had dropped due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Dato' Desmond is very concerned because his business

was also not doing well. Dato' Desmond thought of a plan to manipulate the share price of his company.

He called for a press conference and announced to the public that his company had started negotiations

with various foreign medical firm to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine in Malaysia. However this was not

true because his company has no experience in the medical device business.

Dato' Desmond then made another public announcement to Bursa Malaysia that his company had

applied to the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency Malaysia for an approval of the Covid-19

vaccine distribution. However Dato' Desmond did not disclose that although an application had been

made, it was rejected by the authorities a few days later. No approval was granted.

Because of these announcements by Dato' Desmond, investors started buying the shares in Big Cheat

Berhad. The share price started to increase rapidly. But now Dato' Desmond is worried. He is afraid

that he could have committed several securities offences.

Advise Dato' Desmond under securities law with reference to decided cases and relevant statutory

provisions on the following matters:

(a) Explain whether the increase in the share price of Big Cheat Berhad in line with the concept of

"efficient capital market".