The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday asked listed companies to disclose their monthly sales, turnover and production figures to stock exchanges, before sharing these with trade bodies and industry associations.
Sebi believes such data, which have a bearing on stock prices, should first be disseminated to stock exchanges to ensure all investors have uniform access to these. “All the events or material information which would have a bearing on the performance/operations of the company, as well as price-sensitive information, shall first be disseminated to the stock exchanges, as required under Clause 36 of the Listing Agreement,” Sebi said in a circular.
Experts said submission of monthly data on sales and production to the exchanges would benefit shareholders, as this would provide a level playing field.
It is a common practice among companies in the automobile, cement and telecom spaces to submit their monthly sales figures to their respective industry bodies. For instance, automobile companies provide their monthly sales data to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers on the first day of every month. Cement companies, too, provide monthly sales figures to the Cement Manufacturers Association. A few companies also upload relevant data on their websites.
Clause 36 of the Listing Agreement mandates companies to promptly disclose price-sensitive information and material events to exchanges. “The issuer will intimate the stock exchange on which the company is listed immediately of events such as strikes, lockouts, closure on account of power cuts, etc, and all events which will have a bearing on the performance/operations of the company, as well as price-sensitive information, both at the time of occurrence of the event and subsequently, after the cessation of the event in order to enable the security holders and the public to appraise the position of the issuer and to avoid the establishment of a false market in its securities,” states Clause 36 of the Listing Agreement.
Sebi also advised stock exchanges to take into account these requirements and bring these to the notice of listed companies.
