The Funny Side of Newspaper Reports

The quarterly results of Subex were announced on Jan 27,2011.If you happen read two dailies in Bangalore, one would get confused. And if you had read only one of the papers, you would have made a buy decision and if you had read another one, you would have made a sell decision. The Bangalore edition of Malayala Manorama(MM) , vernacular daily in Malayalam language, dated Jan 28,2011,gives a rosy picture of the company, having turned in 112% growth in net-profits during the third quarter of the financial year 2010-11,compared to the third quarter of the previous year. The profit at the net level for the period is said to have improved to Rs.24.04 crores as against Rs.11.38 crores during the same period of the previous year. The paper has titled the story to mean “Subex achieves 112% growth in net-profit”

Economic Times(ET) dated Jan 27,2011 also gives the results of the company. The ET has titled the details under “Subex logs 48% drop in net profit”. According to ET, the net profit for the third quarter ending Devember31,2010 declined to Rs.21.51 crores as against Rs.41.87 crores in the corresponding period of the previous year.

So, how will one go about? Those who had read only MM would have gone ahead buying shares, probably to witness a number of people, who read ET, selling the shares.How skewed it will be to selling or buying will depend on how many people who have read the respective papers traded on the Subex counter.

Results posted at Subex website proves MM right.