Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013

Dealing in financial products on markets - Purposes, overview, and interpretation - Material information and generally available to the market

232: Meaning of generally available to the market

You could also call this:

"What 'generally available to the market' means: information investors can easily find and use."

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When you hear the term "generally available to the market", it means information that people who invest in financial products can easily find out. This can happen if the information is shared in a way that investors would notice, and enough time has passed for them to learn about it. You can also consider information "generally available" if investors can get it by doing some research or using their expertise.

If information is likely to affect the price of certain financial products, it is considered "relevant" to those products. You can think of "relevant financial products" as the kinds of investments that might become more or less valuable because of the information. Information that companies share with the public, as required by law, is considered "generally available" as soon as it is shared with people who buy and sell investments on licensed markets, such as the New Zealand stock exchange.

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This page was last updated on 15 July 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM4091287.

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Money and consumer rights > Banking and loansBusiness > Industry rulesBusiness > Fair trading

231: Meaning of material information, or

"What 'material information' means: important details that could change the price of a company's financial products if made public."

233: Certain derivatives treated as being quoted financial products of listed issuer, or

"Derivatives based on listed company products are treated like the company's products"

Part 5Dealing in financial products on markets
Purposes, overview, and interpretation: Material information and generally available to the market

232Meaning of generally available to the market

In this Part, information is generally available to the market—
if—
1. it is information that has been made known in a manner that would, or would be likely to, bring it to the attention of persons who commonly invest in relevant financial products; and
2. since it was made known, a reasonable period for it to be disseminated among those persons has expired; or
if it is likely that persons who commonly invest in relevant financial products can readily obtain the information (whether by observation, use of expertise, purchase from other persons, or any other means); or
if it is information that consists of deductions, conclusions, or inferences made or drawn from either or both of the kinds of information referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b).

In this section, relevant financial products means financial products of a kind the price of which might reasonably be expected to be affected by the information.
Information that is notified in accordance with a continuous disclosure obligation is generally available to the market under subsection (1)(a) immediately on it being made available to participants in a licensed market (without limiting how quickly the reasonable period of dissemination in subsection (1)(a)(ii) may be satisfied in other cases).

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1988 No 234 s 4