Methods used by Thai and Malaysian security analysts to appraise ordinary shares

Fundamental Analysis of Banking Industry

This paper threw light on the practical usefulness of fundamental and technical analysis. Company level fundamental analysis may involve examination of financial data, management, business concepts, and competition. Technical analysis is about analyzing past price action and from that deriving a predictive model for the future. Fundamental analysis is more useful for long term trades and investments ; whereas, technical analysis is more useful from a short term perspective. For the purpose of data analysis and interpretation, five market capitalization services companies were selected. These are TCS, Reliance, Coal India, HUL, and Hindustan Zinc. Data for 10 years were collected for these companies. Stock market prices of 10 years of these companies were employed for the technical analysis. Also, balance sheets of 10 years of these companies were employed for fundamental analysis. In the study, it was found that both the analysis were useful in dealing with stock market activities.

This study compared American and Japanese youth preferences for information sources and advertising content within the context of their respective cultures’ relationship and communication values. It found larger parental involvement and smaller media use for Japanese students. In an interesting reversal from cultural expectations, Japanese students ranked advertising as the most important information source and family as considerably less important, while American students did the opposite. Friends, not family, were the important interpersonal information source for the Japanese. Japanese consumers of the ‘90s may be ‘holonic’: able to be both individualistic and in harmony with groups important to them. The Japanese youth preferences for advertising content—indirect, symbolic, visual, emotional, with infrequent brand identification—were more in line with expectations.

CHAPTER 3 - Ascertainment of Profit or Loss and Financial Position

The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of the use of the fair value model under IAS 40 of accounting for an investment property on the fundamental analysis of Barwa Company, a real estate developer company listed in Qatar Exchange. This examination of effect concentrates on whether or not this choice will have an impact on the fundamental financial analysis of the company and consequently on investors' decision-making. The research methodology depends on selecting balance sheet and income statement items that are affected by the adoption, then restating them by adjusting for the revaluation gain or loss recognized and comparing them to the original values. Profitability and financial market ratios are utilized to examine the impact on the accounting numbers. Ratios are calculated over 17 consecutive quarters from Q1-2007 to Q1-2011. The study finds that while the choice of the fair value model results in a small impact on balance sheet items, the effect on income statement items seemed to be significant. Among the accounting numbers affected, net income remains to have suffered the highest impact. Furthermore, all accounting ratios were affected by the choice. The ratios used are those of profitability and market value including profit margin ratio, the cost to income ratio, return on assets, return on equity, price/book value ratio and earnings per share. Interestingly, upward and downward market corrections for the company⁉s share price were not associated with the company's recognition of fair value revaluation gains or losses. This suggests that the share price of the company may not be driven by the company specific characteristics, rather by different market factors. The study contributes to the literature by examining the effect of the adoption of fair value rules in IFRS on the financial information as the study documents the direct effect of the use of the fair value model in IAS 40 on accounting figures in general and reported net profit or loss in particular. Moreover, looking at Fair Value Model (FVM) from the firm fundamental perspective is important for both standard setters and shareholders. For standard setters, the results of such inquiry help to verify whether the standard on fair value reached its goal of providing the capital markets with relevant and reliable accounting information that mitigates the information gap between the firm and outsiders. For shareholders, FVM is important from both investment and contracting reasons. From an investment perspective, IAS40 has an impact on the last line of the income statement, and shareholder decision on whether to buy, hold or sell, depends mostly on the informativeness of firm reported earnings. Second, FVM has an impact on the contractual arrangements with both managers and creditors.

Corporate environmental sustainability reporting (CESR) has been linked to the social license to operate, assisting companies in communicating their environmental performance, and through it, increasing transparency and maintaining stakeholder relationships. This study examines how topics related to environmental sustainability are disclosed in annual reports of companies from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) Industrials List. The investigation was performed by means of quantitative and qualitative content analysis of annual reports to identify relevant keyword occurrences. A keyword indicator list was created by combining four topics from the GRI G3 disclosure checklist/GRI Standards with other four relevant topics. Results revealed the differences in the number of environmental disclosures between individual companies and between industry groups. The existence of a relationship between the extent of CESR on one side and company size, sector, and share price on the other was confirmed. In addition to providing practical implications, this study also contributes to theory by addressing the issue of the limited applicability of GRI keywords as CESR indicators.

"This paper aims to examine the extent of corporate social reporting practices in the annual reports of companies in India and to ascertain the differences if any, between public sector and private sector companies and to investigate what were the determinants of corporate social reporting . The study intends to answer the research questions which include: a) what variables could represent a Conceptual Model of Corporate Social Reporting consists of dependent variables and Independent variables? b) What are the factors of Corporate Social Reporting (COSOR) and how valid and reliable are these factors? c) What is the degree of COSOR by factors in public and private sector companies? d) What are the determinants of COSOR? What is the level of their influence on COSOR? A sample of 120 listed companies of National Stock Exchange of India was chosen and they were stratified in to public and private sector companies. A Corporate social reporting Index was constructed for data collection through content analysis from the annual reports. The results of the study revealed that social accounting information were disclosed in company’s annual reports, chairman’s speech, directors’ reports, notes to accounts, schedule to accounts and auditor’s report. The degree of corporate social reporting varies between public sector and private sector companies. The public sector companies have disclosed more corporate social reporting information than the private sector companies. The study found that higher the level of capital employed, earnings before depreciation and taxes, total assets and total sales higher was the level of corporate social reporting. However, the degree of influence of determinants on corporate social reporting was different among public and private sector companies. Most of the companies have disclosed corporate social information on voluntary basis. To improve the understandably, uniformity, and comparability of corporate social information, this study suggests making it mandatory. A standard format for disclosure of corporate social information shall be prescribed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs by amending the Indian Companies Act. The concept of social accounting is relatively new in India. This study suggests to include it in the commerce curriculum and also in the curriculum of CA/CWA/CS. Corporate Social Reporting is such a vast area of research that no single study can cover different dimensions related to it. Though some studies including the present study have been conducted on Corporate Social Reporting Practices in India, but still there is much potential of research in this area. Future research in this area will hopefully bring more brightening result measuring and analysing social costs and benefits data by manager as well as by other concerned. Since the subject is in the primary stage, an in-depth research is needed to be done in different sectors such as banking information technology, manufacturing etc. The results are specifically applicable to sample companies and generalisations can be made with caution. The results of the study are based on the data collected from published annual reports of sample companies using content analysis method. Corporate social reporting in company websites, brochures etc are not covered. Social cost and benefit analysis is not covered in this study.

Many of the recent company collapses, such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and Global Crossing, are believed to have been predictable by the detailed reading of several years of a company’s annual report and accounts. A company’s published annual report and accounts are important primary documents for anyone with an interest in the organization and electronic databases are therefore frequently seen as one convenient method of providing access to annual report information. Typical databases providing this service include: Perfect Information; Juniper; UK Company Factfinder; Global Access; Business Browser; and CAROL (Company Annual Reports Online). A closer look, however, reveals that these services, in addition to being expensive, have a number of inherent limitations. A project was undertaken by the libraries of London Business School, Manchester Business School, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Warwick to find a solution to this problem. The project, “Company annual reports: assuring the distributed national print archive”, funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) and running from October 2000 to July 2002, aimed: to provide a comprehensive national resource for researchers interested in using annual report literature; to identify and catalogue major collections of historic company annual reports (substantive collections of pre-1995 material); to address collection development issues, in particular retention policies; and to investigate the potential for the development of a national collection strategy for company annual reports. The project outcome was the development of the SCoRe Database (Search Company Reports) (http://www.score.ac.uk), a Web based, national union catalogue of company annual report holdings in major collections held by academic and national libraries.

Students from several rural, Southwestern schools rated family, television, teachers and doctors as the most important of 11 sources of information about various health topics. However, doctors were only the fifth-ranked source of information about sex and reproduction and the seventh-ranked source of information about drugs, with friends being the fourth- and third-ranked sources of information about these two more personal and sensitive topics. American Indians reported even stronger reliance on doctors than did Hispanic and Anglo students, and rated clinic nurses as much more important sources of health information than did the other two ethnic groups. Females showed greater reliance on social sources and less on electronic media than did male students, and high school students relied more on print media and less on television, nurses and family than did younger children. Students felt more knowledgeable about smoking, alcohol and exercise than about diet, the heart-blood system and cancer; however, American Indians felt less informed about smoking and alcohol than did Anglos or Hispanics. These findings (especially when compared to previous results) suggest that effective health education programs must be tailored to particular populations and based on specific knowledge of their attitudes, behavior and environment.

Following various national HIV and AIDS awareness campaign activities under the auspices of the Ministries of Health and Education, Zimbabwe, an AIDS KABP survey was undertaken. The study sample comprised 478 high school students randomly selected and stratified to represent sex and Forms 1 through to 6. The study instrument was a 31-item questionnaire designed to assess the students' knowledge, attitudes, practices and sources of information in relation to HIV syndrome. This report reviews only that part of the study dealing with sources of information. Newspapers, television, radio and magazine were the most frequently cited sources of first information. Classmates were cited by 20% to over 30% of respondents as first sources of information. Authority figures like health workers, parents, teachers, the Church did not emerge as significant sources of first information. Doctors were identified as the most preferred source of information in future. Sources of first information were related to age, form level, sex and location of school attended. There were notable differences between boarding school respondents and day scholars. No regional differences were noted.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the perception of professional investors in Pakistan regarding the usefulness of quarterly reports of companies. The perceptions of professional investors were solicited by using a questionnaire survey method.150 questionnaires were distributed in order to collect data. Out of which, 129 questionnaires were received and in a position for further analysis. Hence, the response rate was 86%. Descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to evaluate the results. Findings show that the quarterly reports are useful for professional investors in Pakistan for their investment decision making process. This study provides evidence that the main purpose of quarterly reports according to professional investors, is to estimate the forthcoming annual results. The quarterly reports are also utilized for other purposes such as to evaluate the management performance and to ascertain turning points in earnings trend or liquidity. Professional investors considered the quarterly reports as third important source and considered the annual reports as the most important source of information in Pakistan. Furthermore, the study also provide evidence that the relative usefulness of quarterly reports depends on the professional investor’s interests and their intensity of analysis. It indicates that there is a significant difference in the perception of professional investors regarding different purposes of quarterly reports. On the other hand, there is no significant difference in the perception of professional investors regarding different sources of information.

Communication preferences and social media engagement among Canadian dairy producers

Blogs are important sources of information currently used in the work of professionals, institutions and academics. Nevertheless, traditional information needs and uses research has not yet discussed where blogs fit in the existing typologies of information sources. Blogs and other types of social media have several characteristics that blur the lines of distinction existent between traditional information source categories. This chapter brings this research problem to the fore. Not only do we examine why blogs do not neatly fit into existing information source categories, but we also deliberate the implications for libraries in terms of the need to consider blogs as an information source to be included in collection development. We discuss the opportunities and possibilities for blogs to be integrated into the collection development efforts of academic and public libraries to better serve patrons. In order to accommodate for blogs and other types of social media as information sources, we propose the introduction of an additional information source category. We suggest new avenues of future research that investigate how blogs are being used to meet information needs in various social settings, such as corporations, health care and educational settings (e.g., higher education, and schools). In this chapter, we develop a framework of how blogs may function as information sources to provide libraries with a better understanding of how blogs are integrated into the context of everyday information seeking. By grouping the ways in which people employ blogs to acquire information, we propose that blogs provide information sources along a continuum ranging from non-fiction to fictional information.

Product complexity effects on information source preference by retail buyers

The objective was to investigate the use of alcohol during pregnancy among parents-to-be and to develop and evaluate a method for a dialogue about alcohol from a life cycle perspective. The study was a quasi-experiment. An intervention group (IG) with 238 couples and a comparison group (CG) with 271 couples participated. All of the participants were recruited at public antenatal care clinics (ANC) in Sweden. At registration, the midwife had a dialogue about alcohol with the IG, and the intervention was evaluated using questionnaires in pregnancy weeks 12 and 33. Alcohol consumption, alcoholism in the family, social support, and source of information were measured. More than 91% of all pregnant women reported that they never drank alcohol either at registration or late in pregnancy, with no difference between the intervention group and the comparison group. Their male partners had a different pattern; 6% abstained from alcohol and about half of them drank alcohol two to four times a month. Nine percent of the participants had experienced an alcohol-dependent parent and 35% of the couples reported alcoholism in either of their families. Most women (92%) stated that the partner’s support to give up alcohol was important. After the intervention, more women in the IG were offered alcohol-free alternatives. About 40% of the partners had reduced their alcohol consumption; they received less social support for alcohol reduction than the pregnant women. A majority, 68%, of the women in the IG stated ANC as the most important source of information about alcohol and pregnancy, compared to 53% in the CG (p < 0.001). After the intervention, a higher proportion of women in the IG were offered alcohol-free alternatives and ANC became the most important source of information about alcohol. Involving the partner in counseling about alcohol-restriction during pregnancy may be a useful health promotion strategy.