May 9 (Reuters) - JPMorgan's ( JPM ) Australian arm has

been fined A$775,000 ($509,252.50) for allowing suspicious

client orders to be placed on wheat futures trading designed to

manipulate the market, the country's corporate regulator said on

Thursday.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

said it found J.P. Morgan Securities' failure to identify the

suspicious trades to be "careless" and that it should have acted

more expeditiously when the regulator flagged the transactions.

Farmers use the contracts to manage wheat price

fluctuations, which can affect what Australians pay at the

checkout, the regulator said in a statement.

"JPMSAL (J.P. Morgan Securities) has resolved this matter,"

a JPMorgan ( JPM ) spokesperson told Reuters.

JPMorgan ( JPM ) did not contest the allegations against it and paid

the penalty amount, the regulator said.

The company was found to have failed to detect 36 orders on

the Eastern Australia Wheat futures between Jan. 11 and March 3,

2022 that were placed with the intention of manipulating the

market.

The orders were carried out "close to the end of a trading

session to influence the daily settlement price of a derivate

contract," the regulator said.

"There are real-world consequences for this sort of

behaviour, which is why tackling manipulation in energy and

commodities derivatives markets has been an ASIC priority," ASIC

 Deputy Chair Sarah Court said.

($1 = 1.5200 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Poonam Behura in Bengaluru and Scott Murdoch in

Sydney; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Subhranshu Sahu)