The firm also said it generally supported management's choice of an auditor and would approve a company's new stock issuance of up to double the number of shares outstanding.

As part of his plea yesterday, Mr. Kessler admitted to helping to arrange a number of stock issuances.

Propelling many of these paychecks is a flood of stock issuance.

The LDS church bought $2 million of the stock issuance.

Although stock issuance has started to slow, many technology companies remain swollen with shares among which company earnings must be divvied.

If Enron stock did well, the stock issuance to these entities would decline, and the transactions would be less noticeable.

The divisor is adjusted in the case of stock issuance, spin-offs or similar structural changes, to ensure that such events do not in themselves alter the numerical value of the Index.

"Plans calling for new stock issuance are most popular among companies that have a great need for capital," said Harold B. Tamule, a professor of finance at Suffolk University in Boston.

Companies in European nations like Italy and Germany rely more on bank loans than on stock issuance for financing, he said.

The suit also seeks to prevent Combined Properties' shareholders from meeting on Friday to give final approval to the stock issuance.