Goldman shares slide 3.5 per cent on probe fears

CHARLOTTE, N.C: Goldman Sachs Group Inc's shares dipped 3.5 percent in early Monday trading amid investor fears the bank may be embroiled in a wide-ranging insider trading probe by the US Department of Justice.

The Justice Department is examining whether employees of the New York-based investment bank leaked information about deals to select clients, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

"There are investor fears we're going to see a repeat of what happened to them earlier this year," said Matt McCormick, a Cincinnati-Ohio-based portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel, Inc.

This spring Goldman was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for improperly disclosing how some of the securities it sold to institutional investors were created. That case was later settled.

Goldman shares were down $5.87, to $160.80 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange, outpacing many of its key rivals and the S&P 500 Index.