Call it the slowdown syndrome, or what some fund managers are calling the ?common sense? logic of concealing bad news when Dalal Street is on the upswing. Their reasons may differ, but large sections of India Inc are shying away from disclosing their unaudited financial results for what was a painful fourth quarter for the Indian economy.

The list includes the blue chip of India Inc from both public and private sectors. Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Larsen & Toubro, NIIT, Tata Power, Indian Oil Corporation and HPCL are some of the companies that won?t be announcing their Q4 results anytime soon.

This is not illegal. As per clause 41 of the listing agreement companies sign with the stock exchanges when issuing shares, Indian companies have two options. They can publish their unaudited annual results, which subsume the fourth quarter earnings, within a month of March 31. Alternatively, they can publish their fully audited annual results by June 30.

Stock market veterans say the number of companies going in for audited statements for 2008-09 is unprecedented. The trend that began as a trickle at the beginning of the Q4 results season has turned into a deluge this week with hundreds of companies opting to skip unaudited result declarations.

Consider this. On April 10, 16 firms informed stock exchanges that they would publish audited results by June 30, 2009. On April 13, the number had shot up to 169 at the National and Bombay stock exchanges. The next trading day, April 15, saw the number of disclosures by companies opting for audited results jumping to 206. On Thursday, at the time of going to press, such disclosures added up to133.

?It?s very unusual. It may be because of the last-minute notification by the government to defer the Accounting Standard 11, as companies will now have to reframe their forex accounting before stating final results?, said UTI Mutual Fund chairman & managing director UK Sinha. UTIAMC is India?s second largest mutual fund house.

India Inc has already got a waiver from showing actual forex losses on their balance sheet. This has been done by keeping in abeyance the implementaion of AS-11 guidelines of accounting standards that listed companies were supposed to follow from this financial year.

Samir Arora of Helios Capital said there was another reason why companies are deferring results. ?The rationale behind companies not declaring their Q4 results is obvious?why disclose a bad result in the middle of a bull rally and spoil everyone?s mood? But for investors, the decision to go for audited results is a signal from the company that it is not comfortable declaring its results right now,? he said.

But Punjab National Bank chairman KC Chakraborty said, ?It?s a routine formality. If we don?t publish unaudited results within one month of the financial year end, we have to inform the stock exchanges. Companies that are not sure of completing their audited results by June 30 would opt for declaring unaudited results.?

While a lot of firms may be deferring accounts for these reasons, some firms are waiting for the Lok Sabha poll results. ?When I asked the promoter of a North India-based realty firm why they weren?t announcing their unaudited results this time, he simply said they are waiting for the election outcome. If a BJP or Congress-led coalition comes to power, they would declare healthier profits than if a Left-backed coalition were to come to power. I was shocked!?, said the chief investment officer of a mutual fund which manages $12 billion in assets.