Tuesday the New York Stock Exchange took steps to delist its shares and the company disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting a preliminary inquiry into the accounting errors that inflated the value of its loan portfolio. New Century’s stock has plummeted 96.8 percent since a 52-week high of $51.97 last May. The stock traded last at $1.66.

In other developments, subprime lender New Century Financial Corp., of Irvine, Calif., said yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had demanded documents and that the New York Stock Exchange had suspended the company from its stock listings. Another subprime lender, Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., of San Diego, said it was laying off workers and looking at “strategic options” as its financial woes worsened.

New Century Financial Corp.’s stock will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange immediately based on its recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission about the “uncertainty of its current liquidity position”, the company said Tuesday.

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They found that the current 10 percent price rise limit had fueled price fluctuations after the stock trading was suspended and it had been ineffective in stopping sharp falls. There are no price limits in mature stock markets, for example, the New York Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The researchers suggest China should gradually abolish the price limit and recommended a “circuit breaker”, which halts trading when the stock moves up or down by a certain percentage, to enable investors to take a cooler, more rational view of the stocks.

In addition, NYSE Regulation considered the abnormally low trading levels for the common stock, which closed at $0.43 on March 9, 2007. The REIT has a right to a review of this determination by a Committee of the Board of Directors of NYSE Regulation (the “Committee�). Application to the Securities and Exchange Commission to delist the issue is pending the completion of applicable procedures, including any appeal by the REIT of the NYSE Regulation staff’s decision. The New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE�) noted that it may, at any time, suspend a security if it believes that continued dealings in the security on the NYSE are not advisable.

New Century’s struggles are part of a wider meltdown among subprime lenders. The home buyers to whom they have lent money, who often had poor or scantily documented credit histories, are now defaulting on mortgages in increasingly large numbers. The shockwaves from the crisis have hit various lenders, from Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. , which said late on Monday that it was exploring strategic options including raising additional capital, to Countrywide Financial Corp. , which said it had cut 108 jobs. Shares in Countrywide, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, fell 3.4 percent in premarket electronic trading.