How disclosure obligations protect investors
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Disclosure obligations require a listed company to promptly release information likely to affect its share price, ensuring every investor has access to the same material facts at roughly the same time, rather than allowing some to trade on information others do not yet have any genuine opportunity to see.
These obligations cover events such as a significant financial result, a major contract win or loss, a leadership change, or a legal matter that could genuinely affect the company's prospects going forward. Delaying disclosure, even briefly, can create a real advantage for anyone aware of the information before it becomes genuinely public knowledge.
Regulators generally monitor unusual trading activity ahead of a public announcement as one way of detecting a possible disclosure breach, since a spike in trading immediately before genuinely new information becomes public can suggest someone traded on knowledge the wider market simply did not yet have access to at the time.