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Is Business News 24/7 Talking Up or Talking Down Stocks?

 
The retiring SEBI chief�s call for self-regulation in business channels give rise to a question: are the channels agenda-driven?
 
Sucheta Dalal
Consulting Editor, MoneyLIFE Magazine

Business channel reporters are not meant to dispense stock advice. They should provide information and report news on the happenings of the market. Trouble crops up when channels rush ahead with unverified news. Hyped stories do cast their shadow on the stock market.
Some popular

channels have signed contracts with a group of analysts or experts. I believe that viewers need more clarity on such deals. Analysts who appear on the programme are supposed to disclose their interest in the stocks that they discuss. This is done in a cursory manner at the end of the programme. I don't see why these disclosures cannot run at the bottom of the screen so that the viewer is informed about the analyst's/their firm's stock interest even while the views are being aired.

   

Sanjay Tripathy
Head, Marketing, HDFC Life Insurance

To make the business channels more popular among traders and active investors and to increase viewership and reach, channels provide expert perspective on investing. The trading community and active investors verify the facts before following any financial snippet or news. Also the views or
position taken by anchors on TV may not have

the power - or scope - to influence the market. But apart from the trading community the common man too tunes into these channels. It is this audience that is at risk of misinterpreting the views. Channels have to realise that the public, which is used to channel surfing might end up grasping incomplete information. For instance, a viewer might just catch the news of a particular mutual fund being the best but he might have hopped on to another channel, and thus, missed the riders that come with investing in that particular X or Y fund.
   

Dhirendra Kumar
MD, Value Research India

No business channel can, or is capable of, talking down and talking up the stock market. Each individual decodes the information being aired on the business channels. The sad part of the story emerges from the tendency of business channels indulging in ball-by-ball commentary on the status of the market. Such talks on TV at times create

unusual hype or promotes false understanding of the financial market.
Also business requires intimate understanding, but the nature of electronic media is such that our TV anchors expect analysts to reduce advice to a single sentence that considerably waters down the credibility of the advice being doled out. Business channels seem to be working with a bunch of anchors who make for good presenters, though lacking in business acumen.
   

Shereen Bhan
Anchor, India Business Hour, CNBC

The increasing number of business channels prove that there is scope and need for such entities. Business channels are a great service to consumers since business news gives viewers access to valuable information. We have experts and regulators speaking on market issues. Their views are helpful when
deciding on financial

issues. Moreover the pros and cons about the market are clearly pointed out, and the choice is ultimately made by the consumer himself. And the very purpose of 24/7 business channels is to keep track of the market happenings.
We too, at our end, truthfully do our homework and put in hard work to bring live news on the market from the point it opens up and to the time it closes down. So criticism that is pretty general is not fair to business channels.

 

   
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