PR Newswire, which was selected to provide company filings to the UK market last month, is to be informally investigated by the Financial Services Authority following a technical glitch which delayed sending price-sensitive news to investors.

PR Newswire on Thursday sent information about the results of Shell and Telewest to Reuters several minutes before it went to the other newswires. It means investors using Reuters to read information were privy to, and could therefore act on, the information before investors who were not using Reuters screens.