Asked if he had come across evidence of TV anchors and senior journalists playing the market, Damodaran said, “Certainly. It was not a question of playing the market but it’s a question of am I talking up something, am I talking down something.”

Referring to a letter he received on his penultimate day in office from an aggrieved investor, Damodaran said, “In a letter sent to a TV person along with a few media houses and a copy endorsed to me, the investor asked, ‘I saw you guys saying everything was good about a particular issue till it listed below the issue price. And now I find you saying everything is wrong and talking it down. What happened to you guys?”

“I think there’s considerable merit in it (the letter)...How is it that suddenly on listing, all the virtues that you thought resided in some particular issue disappeared?” Damodaran stressed. “I think the media has a very large role to play and I am afraid that that role is not being played to the best of its ability.”

Citing the example of electronic media, he said, “There are people who make statements that are very clear indications of talking up or talking down stocks. And what do we have by way of investor protection? A disclosure that says, is this person having a position in that stock? Earlier, we had statements like ‘not really’, ‘maybe’, ‘it’s likely that my clients have.’ Today, you get a broad spectrum such as ‘It is entirely possible that I have this.’ Is this disclosure? It is clearly not. I would want to know before someone gives me advice whether you are giving me that advice because you will benefit.” Calling current disclosures “far too routine,” Damodaran said, “In fact, people have been saying things like ‘We are running out of time, can you make the disclosure to us?’ Disclosure is complete if you make it to the right audience, not to a television anchor. It is to the investor who is going to put his money. Filing disclosures is not good enough.”

... contd.