Business Media most influential with Analysts & Investors

 Research undertaken by the Australasian Investor Relations Association (AIRA) shows that

business media is one of the top sources of information for institutional investors and stockbroking analysts. 

Business media, both print and online, are regular sources of information on the companies
followed: Australian Financial Review (96%) and metropolitan dailies, Yahoo Finance (55%),
and Bloomberg (53%).

Other top sources are one-to-one and group company briefings, listed entity websites, the

ASX website, IRESS, analyst research and company emails for the institutional investors and stockbroking analysts surveyed.

The survey also found:

• Attending listed entity presentations in person is the preference for the majority of the institutional investor and analyst group surveyed.
• When webcasts are accessed it is largely through the listed entity’s website.
• Reading transcripts of interviews is very popular, with 80% of respondents saying
  they use these as an information source. 

Australian companies are not yet using social media widely for investor relations purposes, but as

more of them begin to disseminate information through social media we expect to see greater investor attention directed to these channels. 

74% of institutional investors and stockbroking analysts surveyed indicated that they do not use social media for investment purposes, with the majority of all respondents (50%) saying this was because it is not trustworthy information. 

20% of respondents said that information accessed through social media channels had influenced
their investment decisions.

15% of respondents said they can access information through social media channels that they can’t get elsewhere.

89% of respondents expect there will be no change in social media’s influence on their investment
decisions in the coming 12 months. 

Social Media for investment purposes

• 17% of respondents had accessed Hot Copper
• 10% of respondents had accessed Seeking Alpha
• 10% of respondents said they had accessed LinkedIn
• 10% of respondents said they had accessed YouTube

A small number (under 10%) of respondents said they had used Wikinvest, Motley Fool,
Facebook or Twitter for investment purposes.

Retail Investors
The 2010 “Retail investors' use of online communications and social media” survey, carried
out with the assistance of the Australian Shareholders’ Association and the New Zealand
Shareholders’ Association showed strong growth in the number of retail investors using
online sources for investment information.

11% of retail investor respondents said that information found in a social media channel had influenced an investment decision.

More IPOs in 2011 than 2010

http://www.miningnewspremium.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=2493252

2011 in review:

More listings, fewer returns   14 December 2011

Kristie Batten

THIS year marked the return of extreme economic volatility, which crippled financial markets and derailed capital raisings and planned listings. But while there were actually more initial public offerings this year than last, investors didn’t see the same sort of success stories with many debutantes failing to fire.

New listings for 2011 (up until yesterday) totalled 81, compared with 56 at the same time last year.

That figure included mining contractors and suppliers GR Engineering Services, Drill Torque, Resource Development Group and Royal Wolf Holdings.

While there was a rush of companies listing or launching IPOs late last year, market conditions saw many of those face long delays or pull out all together.

May was the biggest month for debuts, with 15 companies listing, followed by January, February, April, July and September with eight.

The quietest month was October, when increasing uncertainty saw only two companies list, with only three in November.

December is set to beat the past two months with three listings so far and another two set for tomorrow, as well as a number of companies which may still land on the bourse before the month ends.

Gold was the flavour of 2010 and explorers of the precious metal continued to dominate listings this year as gold hit a record high.

While there were companies representing just about every commodity, including rare earths, lithium, potash and manganese, coal companies had a particularly good showing this year and were also the leading fundraisers.

The biggest float of the year was Chinese underground coal miner Blackgold International, which raised $58.5 million in February.

Owen Hegarty-backed coal hopeful Tigers Realm Coal raised $37.5 million, while GR Engineering Services raised $30 million.

According to Bloomberg data, the average IPO raising was around $7 million.

2011 Top News Sites & Journalists

Newsknife is out with its 2011 ranking of top news sites and journalists based on an analysis of news items appearing on Google News. News site ratings were based on a review of 202,143 listings by 3847 news sites for 8033 news items during 2011.

This data is beneficial as stories that appear on Google News have the potential to reach large global audiences and drive huge website traffic.

Top News Sites of 2011

Rank   #Listed       Media
1       622              Los Angeles Times
2       616              Reuters
3       504              New York Times
4       439              Wall Street Journal
5       417              USA Today
6       327              Washington Post
7       213              ABC News
8       197              Bloomberg
9       172              MSNBC
10     168              Christian Science Monitor

You’ll notice only two sites are TV – ABC and MSNBC – though Bloomberg is a hybrid. Year over year changes are also interesting to note. In 2010, the New York Times was the top news site followed by the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal. The Associated Press, CNN and ABC dropped off the 2011 top ten compared to last year.

Newsknife’s Top journalists for 2011

Country/Journalist                            #Listed
Australia:   James Massola                        139
Botswana:   Bame Piet                               52
Canada (English):   Mark Kennedy            84
Ethiopia:   William Davison                         42
Ghana:   Adwoa Gyasiwaa                         25
India:   Smita Gupta                                    56
Ireland:   Harry McGee                             110
Israel:   Herb Keinon                                  114
Kenya:   Bernard Momanyi                        158
Malaysia:   Charles Ramendran                 41
Namibia:   Denver Kisting                           28
Nigeria:   Yusuf Alli                                     113
New Zealand:   Paul Harper                       107
Pakistan:   Syed Irfan Raza                        70
Philippines:   Christine O. Avendaño        186
South Africa:   Charl Du Plessis                 59
Singapore:   Leong Wee Keat                    73
Tanzania:   Florence Mugarula                   58
Uganda:   Yasiin Mugerwa                         94
U.K.:   Andrew Grice                                  81
U.S.:   Frank James                                   97
Zimbabwe:   Kelvin Jakachira                    92

For top US journalists, NPR reporter and blogger Frank James had 97 listings. David Grice, political editor at The Independent led in the UK with 81 listings.