Analyst recommendations fail to stem sell-off

I was chatting to a finance director at a medium-cap company the other day and he said that the current economic conditions made him want to crawl under a rock and hide.

'There's just no point in talking to the market right now,' he whined. 'Investors aren't listening to anything you say and they certainly aren't buying anything.'

The company recently released their results only to be met with a flurry of endorsements from analysts. 'BUY' all the analysts chorused. But instead of buying, investors freaked out and sold by the shed load, the share price dropped and the company got very confused.

'But we had good results and the analysts like us,' the company complained.

They all scratched their heads and concluded that in the current market conditions, no one gives a monkey's what the analysts are saying.

Clare Harrison
Deputy international editor
IR magazine