The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), which is the country's corporate sector watchdog, has said that it will check the discussions between companies and analysts after allegations that there have been violations of insider trading laws in the country.

The authority is planning to conduct random checks on companies during this reporting season in order to ensure that analysts and the companies do not violate the insider trading laws. The move comes after claims that analysts sometimes gain access to inside information that is not available in the public domain. ASIC officers will not be present in the boardroom briefings in order to know what is being discussed in these briefings.

The authority is investigating allegations that Newcrest Mining briefed analysts secretly about its job cuts and a multi-billion dollar profit downgrade several days before announcing to the public. Ahead of the market announcement on June 7, several leading analysts downgraded the shares of the company and it fell almost 12 per cent in the stock exchange.

ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour said, "One of the things we're looking to do is to check with a limited number of companies exactly how they go about doing this, how they go about briefing analysts, and what sort of conversations they have, what sort of procedures they may put in place."

Ms Armour said that the she is expecting high level of cooperation from the companies as the random checks will have to be approved by the company managements.