By my reckoning nine FTSE-100 companies published their half-year results today and another four issued trading updates. On a day when half the City (and half the press pack) is on holiday. It is ridiculous and tomorrow looks nearly as bad.
(Yes, I have ranted about this before. I’m going to carry on until someone notices.)
This results traffic jam would make sense as a strategy if big companies wanted to hide how they were doing. But assuming they don’t, they are just getting in each other’s way.
Some papers downpage at this time of year too, which makes the race for space ever more intense. Interesting, important stories get lost.
Now, companies do have a window in which results announcements have to appear, so I can see why there are overlaps.
It doesn’t look like it would be beyond the collective wit of the companies and the regulators to plan ahead a bit, in everyone’s interests.