China Mass Media Rises 800% or Falls 90%? A Confusing Situation for Traders

Shares of China Mass Media Corp CMM, a low floater with average daily volume of 7,500 shares and a market cap of $12 million, were trading as high as $8.00 today on 74 times the normal volume. That is well down from last Friday's (December 23) closing price of $23.66. The reason: China Mass Media on Friday paid a dividend of $23 to shareholders of record as of December 9, 2011. The dividend payment was first announced in a press release dated October 28. The dividend amounts to $0.07667 per ordinary share. No U.S. withholding tax will be held by the Company. The full amount of the distribution will be taxable for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Each of the Company's ADSs represents 300 ordinary shares of the Company. Investors who enter into trades to purchase ADSs on or after December 27, 2011 are not entitled to the special cash dividend. Ex-dividend, Friday's closing price was reduced to $0.66. Shares began trading Tuesday at $1.49 and rose quickly, hitting the high for the day at about 10:15am. Adding to the confusion, some quote services showed the shares trading up as much as 1200 per cent on the $0.66 ex dividend price, while others showed China Mass Media to be trading 97% per cent lower than Friday's pre-dividend price. A very confusing day for traders of China Mass Media.