George Stairs, a former fund manager at Fidelity in the US, has been banned from trading in Hong Kong for two years and ordered to pay almost HK$860,000 in costs after improperly selling shares ahead of a rights issue.

Mr Stairs, who managed Fidelity Management and Research’s International Value Fund and co-managed the Total International Equity Fund, was found to have placed an order to sell shares in a Chinese fruit and vegetable supplier after being told it was planning a sizeable equity placing before the information was made public.

The case underlines the punitive measures being pursued by Hong Kong’s regulators to maintain confidence in the system, which is made more difficult by the fact that so many companies and investors are based offshore. The UK’s Financial Services Authority this year brought six similar cases, including one against the US hedge fund billionaire David Einhorn, for trading after receiving information that the regulator judged to be price sensitive.