Austria's Financial Market Authority has asked the public prosecutor to determine whether OMV AG (OMV.VI) Chief Executive Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer should be charged on suspicion of insider trading, the FMA said Thursday.

The case relates to Ruttenstorfer's purchase of EUR620,444 of OMV shares March 23, a week before the company announced it had agreed to sell its 20.2% stake in Hungarian peer MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) for EUR1.4 billion - double the market price. The MOL stake deal caused OMV shares to rise more than 3%.

The FMA has been investigating the case since April, before the findings were handed to the proscutor's office Tuesday.

In an emailed statement, Austrian energy firm OMV said it considers the suspicions against Ruttenstorfer unfounded, and that he acted in a proper and fully transparent manner.

"The investment in OMV made by Mr. Ruttenstorfer was communicated to the authorities and to the public via publication on our Web site. There is no relation to the MOL purchase agreement. It was done in a correct way," OMV said.

Public prosecutor spokesman Gerald Jarosch said the FMA has been asked to further investigate some details, and once the new findings have been evaluated it will be decided whether charges will be raised against Ruttenstorfer. Insider trading can be punished in Austria with a maximum sentence of three years in jail.

Web sites: www.omv.com; www.fma.gv.at

-By Flemming E. Hansen, Dow Jones Newswires; +43 1 513 69 22 10; flemming.hansen@dowjones.com