Six board members of Russian-linked mining giant Polymetal International PLC (LSE:POLY) have left with immediate effect, with trading in the company's shares later reviewed by the London Stock Exchange review after a suspicious 700% spike during morning trading.
After the shares skyrocketed from 200p to as high as 1,230p before dropping sharply back, the LSE voided dozens of trades in what appeared to have been a “fat finger” error, where traders presses an extra key by mistake when making an order.
The exchange owner said it would cancel all trades between 8.41am and 9.02am.
Earlier, the gold and silver miner announced that directors Ian Cockerill, Ollie Oliveira, Tracey Kerr, Italia Boninelli, Victor Flores and Andrea Abt had all stepped down from the board.
It comes as the company deals with the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which saw Polymetal's shares lose 80% of its value over a fortnight.
Last week, the group said it was "shocked and appalled" by the events in Ukraine and that its intention was to carry on as "normally as possible".
Polymetal had said the current devastating conflict in Ukraine and related economic and political developments are likely to "require a lot of management efforts to maintain company performance".
Before the 'fat finger' entered the scene, Polymetal's share price staged a moderate recovery in recent days, rising 30% to 220.39p by late morning on Monday, after hitting a low of 166.3p in the past week.
"Russian companies trading on the London Stock Exchange continue to lose board members at pace as directors realise the optics of being linked to these businesses are toxic," said analysts at AJ Bell, noting that another non-Russian director had departed from fellow FTSE 100 member Evraz as well.
“As soon as the Institute of Directors, hardly an organisation known for its radicalism, pushed for Britons involved to take the jump this mass exodus was almost an inevitability. However, it will make any future rehabilitation for these stocks, which already looked unlikely, even more difficult," the analysts said.
Polymetal is close to being booted from the FTSE 100 as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered an 80% crash in its valuation.
** Updates share price, adds broker comment ***