According to Listing Rule 3.1 under the Continuous Disclosure Obligations laid out by the ASX, any company that is listed on the ASX has to disclose company news in the form of ‘ASX announcements’. The rule states that all information that a layman might expect to have a material effect on the company’s share price, have to be released to the market immediately.
Investors search for company announcements for various reasons. When you do your own research, we advise you to go through a company’s announcements to understand the company’s history, balance sheet, corporate activity, or one-off events. Unless you buy a stock for technical reasons (read here our introduction to technical analysis), you’ll have to understand the company’s business model to a certain degree and the announcements are a good place to start. As the ASX keeps a record of all announcements, you will also be able to compare the historical financial performance for any given period. Another reason to look up a company’s announcements might be to find out why a stock you are holding has made a significant move to the upside or downside. Significant share price movements are often linked to price-sensitive announcements.
Many average retail investors might be confused about finding relevant factual data about the companies they are interested in. They might finally resort to reading the business section of the major tabloids or check the company’s website as an avenue for updated information. However, the newspapers are sometimes limited in nature, often reporting on only the major ‘blue-chip’ companies or including personal opinions in the article. Investors who are doing their own research might be overwhelmed by the numerous opinions on the web.
Find below a few options of where to search and find ASX announcements.
1. ASX Website
Many investors are unaware that they can keep themselves updated about operational changes of any ASX listed company. This information isn’t difficult to obtain, as everyone can access it by simply navigating to the official ASX website www.asx.com.au. They can search for the information of any ASX company of their choice and view past company announcements. The ASX website is the best place to look for announcements as they are released in real-time.
Today’s announcements can be found here: http://www.asx.com.au/asx/statistics/todayAnns.do
The website automatically displays the latest announcements, sorted by the time of publication. Simply save this link in your web browser so you can access it whenever you want. In order to view new announcements, you have to refresh the page regularly.
Additionally, the ASX website also denotes to the reader the ‘price-sensitive announcements’ indicated by a red ‘$’ beside the announcement. These announcements are usually more important, and could potentially have a substantial impact on the company’s share price.
These ‘price-sensitive announcements’ vary in nature. They could be the release of earning results for a given time period, the appointment of a new CEO or a director, or some unforeseen event occurring within the business’s operations (such as BHP’s recent Samarco Dam Disaster).
Historical announcements of a particular company can be found here: http://www.asx.com.au/asx/statistics/announcements.do
Simply choose the ticker code of the company you want to look up and select the timeframe. Tick the second box and select “2016” if you want to see all announcements released in 2016.
View the screenshot below for illustration purposes
2. On your Broker’s Website
Many online brokers have built-in features to view and read company announcements. The largest online brokers in Australia usually have a section dedicated to announcements in their membership portal. If you can’t find this section or you are unsure if your broker offers this feature, we advise you to talk to your broker and find out if and where you can read company announcements. Often there is a 20-minute delay with these publications.
3. On the Company Website
Every listed company has a section on its website dedicated to investors. You can read media released stock information, annual reports, key dates, or the “Corporate Governance” statement. Jump onto www.google.com.au and type in the name of the company you are looking for. Usually, the first result is the company website, and from there you should be able to find all announcements.
