Deputy prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told market regulators today to swiftly resolve the delay in the listing of new shares in Technology Resources Industries (TRI).

TRI was to have listed 473.834 million new shares, arising from a restricted offer as part of a restructuring plan, on Wednesday but the stock exchange deferred trading at the eleventh hour to seek further details from the company.

The deferment has spooked the stock market, which has fallen by nearly three percent since Wednesday, analysts said.

Abdullah said he had met with market regulators yesterday and told them to act speedily on the matter.

"I hope they (regulators) will make a decision quickly, I hope by end of the day, because I don't want this particular problem to affect investor sentiment. There are already negative reactions to the reports (on TRI)," he told reporters.

"We cannot have uncertainty when it comes to this particular issue. A decision must be made and a full announcement must be made."

'Not linked to probe'

The new TRI shares, valued at RM887 million, were sold largely to foreign institutional investors as part of an exercise to restructure the company's debts of RM3.8 billion.

TRI, which controls the second-largest cellular phone operator Celcom, is headed by Tajudin Ramli who is under police investigation for alleged management irregularities at Malaysia Airlines where he was formerly key shareholder and chairman.

Abdullah dismissed talk that the deferment was linked to the police probe.

"Tajudin has nothing to do with it... it is a separate issue completely," he said.

TRI executive director Lim Kheng Yew said Thursday the company had complied with all requirements. He said the deferment had cast doubts over TRI's entire restructuring exercise and put the plan at risk.

Lim said TRI may be sued by investors in its restricted shares as it had made representations that the shares would be listed within six market days from Feb 14.

Bad for confidence

Analysts said any further delay would further weaken market sentiment and hurt investors' confidence in Malaysia.

"Foreign perception on the corporate sector will deteriorate further. This is already reflected in the market and TRI's share price over the last two days," a local research chief told financial news wire AFX-Asia.

Investors in the restricted issue, who were all institutional, were definitely unhappy - especially the foreigners, she said. (AFP)