A STOCK analyst has taken a newspaper office and a public company, along with its chairman, to court in Guangzhou.Last year, a stock buyer surnamed Zhang of Shandong Province sued Xiong Jingsong, claiming he had lost about 80,000 yuan (US$9,685) after buying shares of a company that Xiong had recommended. It was the first case of its kind in China.Zhang had bought a newspaper that carried Xiong’s article, in which he said the listed company had much potential. Zhang bought 27,500 shares of the company at a cost of almost 350,000 yuan. When the company’s financial statement was released reporting a result quite opposite to Xiong’s prediction, the share price dropped from 13 to seven yuan, resulting in Zhang’s loss.Zhang later took Xiong and the newspaper office to court, which ruled that Xiong’s article had spread false information encouraging people to buy the shares.The court ruled that the article was responsible for Zhang’s loss. Xiong was ordered to pay Zhang compensation of 84,826.1 yuan.Xiong said in his complaint that he had written his article in line with another from a Hong Kong economic daily. He argued that if the information of his article was ruled as false, there would be two possibilities. Either the article that he copied was incorrect, or the company had deliberately provided false information, because the article had been based on an interview with the company’s chairman.Xiong asked for 20,000 yuan as indemnity for defamation and 84,826.1 yuan for his economic loss.(John Woo)