Anonymous Analysts Are Wreaking Havoc in the Asian Markets
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An anonymous researcher releases a report questioning the accounts of a publicly traded company. Investors catch wind of it and sell. The targeted firm denies the allegations, but by then the share-price damage is already done.
That’s what’s playing out in Asia this week, with reports on Singapore-listed Noble Group Ltd. and Sound Global Ltd. in Hong Kong erasing about $900 million of market value in a single day. For Andrew Clarke, director of trading at Hong Kong brokerage Mirabaud Asia Ltd., there’s something unsettling about that pattern when the sources of market-moving claims can’t be held accountable for what they say.