LONDON -- Britain's financial watchdog is to investigate Web message boards that offer stock market tips and gossip that can move share prices, The Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday.
It said the Financial Services Authority was still drawing up the terms of its investigation into e-commerce but that the huge volume of potentially market-moving information on the Internet was almost certain to be included.
Online share trading is growing rapidly and the paper quoted officials as saying investors should be cautious about stock tips gleaned from the Web.
The paper said established houses running bulletin boards had pledged to root out individuals posting inaccurate or false information.
But it said the practice of talking up a share price over an Internet message board -- "pumping and dumping" -- would be investigated.
It was not immediately clear what action the FSA could take.
The paper said the FSA was unlikely to seek to regulate opinion, however malicious or unfounded, leaving it to companies to monitor what was said about them on the Internet.
