Where to find data for analysis: Annual Reports, Exchanges Websites, RBI website, Websites of rating agencies.

Data Sources for Equity Investment analysis

In an era of the Internet finding information is not that hard but keeping yourself safe from wrong information is more important. If you ask me what data sources I use to analyze any equity my answer would be Annual reports of the company only. But at times we require some cross-checking to make sure whatever we are reading is true specifically when it comes to industry and economy analysis. Such things can be cross-checked from the data on RBI websites data, rating agencies data, etc.

Annual Report 

The annual report of the company is the single most important piece of information. Everything one needs to know about the company, the industry, and the economy while investing is mentioned in the annual report. If you feel a company is trying to hide something or the financial data reported is not matching with the company's statements regarding outlook; then ideally one should avoid investing in that company. Obviously, it is not a wise decision to be in partnership with a lier.

Where can you get the annual reports? Annual reports are available for free download on the company's website as well as exchange websites. You will find an investor section on all listed company's websites where annual reports are available for download.

Exchanges Websites

Exchanges websites are a great place to find information regarding other listed companies in the same segment you are interested in. Alongside exchange, websites are a good source of valid information regarding the company's performances and corporate actions. Whenever a company report's it's quarterly, annual results or decide to take any corporate action such as bonuses, split, buyback, rights, etc. It first reports it to exchanges and SEBI. Exchanges display this information on their websites. Although such information gets flashed on all business news channels and newspapers, information on exchange platforms is more trustworthy.

RBI Website

RBI is an important pillar of the Indian economy. Policies of RBI imparts a considerable impact on the economic cycle. RBI makes sure to keep inflation and unemployment rates in control and keep changing its policies accordingly. The only trustworthy way to track RBI policies is going through their website. The study of RBI policies plays an important role in economic analysis. If any such policy is directly impacting underlying business then the company does mention it in the annual report, but the annual report is published once in a year while policies may keep changing continuously.

Websites of Rating Agencies

The rating agency's work is to rate corporate bodies for their ability to repay loans and liabilities on the long term and short term basis. If a company is not able to repay its loans then sooner or later it will go bankrupt. Companies with heavy loans end-up destroying investor wealth by falling share prices as their profits, if any, keeps flowing to interest payments. The rating agency's reports can give an indication of the company's financial condition. Rating agency's rate is mentioned in the annual report but similar to RBI policies the rating agencies ratings also keep changing while annual reports are published once in a year.

Analyst Research Report

The analyst research reports are not mandatory but a useful tool to find something one may have missed. I recommend reading an analyst research report only in the learning stage of your investment journey. 

These are the major data sources for information required for analysis. All the data sources explained here (except Analyst Research Report) are trustworthy. I recommend you should stick to these sources only. 

If you have any query please feel free to comment.

And don't forget to READ TO LEARN INVESTING.