Common Problems in Financial Information of NSE-Listed Companies

These are not necessarily accounting mistakes. They are mainly problems with the presentation, availability, standardization and easy use of information by investors.

1. Incomplete information
   Financial information is often spread across different documents such as financial results, notes, investor presentations and annual reports. Investors have to open several documents to get complete information.

2. Different formats
   Different companies present their financial results in different formats. This makes it difficult to compare two or more companies quickly.

3. Figures without clear units
   Sometimes it is not immediately clear whether the figures are in ₹ crore, ₹ lakh, ₹ million or another unit. The unit should be clearly mentioned at the top of every table.

4. Different number systems
   Some companies use the Indian number system, such as 1,00,000, while others may use 100,000. A common number format would make comparison easier.

5. Wrong or inconsistent comma placement
   Numbers are sometimes displayed in different formats. A single standard system for commas and decimal points should be followed.

6. Financial-result links are difficult to find
   Investors sometimes have to search through several pages to find the latest financial results. Older results can be even more difficult to locate. All results should be available through one simple page with direct links.

7. Historical financial results are difficult to compare
   To compare the last 5 or 10 years, investors often have to open many separate documents. A single table showing historical financial data would save considerable time.

8. Finding past stock prices is lengthy and difficult
   Finding the closing price of a stock on a particular past date can take several steps. Investors should be able to enter a date and immediately get the stock price.

9. Financial results and stock prices are not properly connected
   Investors often want to know what happened to the share price after a company announced its results. Financial results and historical prices should be connected in one place.

For example:

Result date → Previous closing price → Result-day price → Next-day price → 1-week price → 1-month price

10. Too much dependence on PDF files
    PDFs are useful for official records, but they are not convenient for analysing hundreds of companies. The same information should also be available in HTML, Excel, CSV and XBRL formats.

11. Sudden change of series from EQ to BE is not investor-friendly
    When a stock suddenly moves from EQ series to BE series, investors may not immediately understand why the change has happened or what it means for trading and settlement. The change should be clearly communicated to investors in advance, wherever possible, with the reason and effective date clearly displayed.

12. Daily Bhav Copy should contain more useful information
    The daily Bhav file should provide more information in one place. At a minimum, it should contain:

• Symbol
• Series
• Name of the company
• Closing price
• Daily change in price
• Daily growth/fall percentage
• 52-week high
• 52-week low

This would make the daily Bhav file much more useful for investors, researchers and analysts.

What a better NSE system could provide

For every listed company, investors should have one simple page containing:

• Latest quarterly and annual results
• Previous 10 quarters
• 5–10 years of historical financial data
• All figures in a standard unit, preferably ₹ crore
• Standard number and comma formatting
• Revenue, EBITDA, PAT, EPS, debt and cash
• Direct PDF, Excel, CSV and XBRL downloads
• Historical share prices
• Result announcement date and time
• Share-price movement after results
• 52-week high and low
• Current trading series and any change in series
• Reason and date of change from EQ to BE or any other series
• Peer-company comparison

The main objective should be simple:

Any investor should be able to find, understand and compare a company's financial and stock-market information within a few minutes, without searching through multiple websites, files and pages.

This would make NSE information more transparent, standardized, investor-friendly and useful for both retail investors and professional analysts.