BSE to trawl social media for information on listed companies

New Delhi: Leading bourse BSE plans to trawl the social media, including Twitter, for information related to listed companies as it looks to step up surveillance amid stringent disclosure regime.

The move is also aimed at ensuring that investors are well informed with timely access to any material information about companies listed on the exchange.

BSE Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashishkumar Chauhan said the exchange has started testing various options to gather information about listed companies on social media.

"It is part of surveillance and we are currently experimenting on social media to sort of check out any news or information about companies which is not available or reported to the exchange but is material. Our surveillance team is experimenting that," Chauhan told PTI.

The bourse is working on a Twitter feed to sort out any news of listed companies on the microblogging site.

According to the BSE chief, changes in technology are being used not only for trading purposes but also for surveillance.

"There are softwares which use artificial intelligence and takes the feed automatically, kind of execute algorithms on that to figure out any information about the company which is listed and not reported to the exchange," he noted.

Earlier this year, capital markets regulator Sebi tightened disclosure norms for listed entities and exchanges have the responsibility of ensuring compliance.

The information, including about material events, would need to be mandatorily disclosed through stock exchange platforms for the benefit of investors and companies are required to provide "specific and adequate reply" to queries with respect to rumours and media reports.

The stringent disclosure regime has been put in place to curb instances of companies selectively leaking information, including through media and without informing the investors first, for illegal gains.

Meanwhile, BSE has also started a listing centre for companies to report their compliances and regulatory reports on an automated basis.

"It is quite new. It is an online platform for real time reports... Information happens anytime," Chauhan said. BSE, which is Asia's oldest stock exchange, has more than 5,000 companies listed on it.