Investor recognition and stock returns: evidence from China

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongquan Zhu ◽  
Lingling Jiang

Purpose Merton’s model of capital market equilibrium under incomplete information predicts that contemporaneous stock returns are positively related to investor recognition and that future stock returns are negatively related to investor recognition. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate whether Merton’s theory holds true for the Chinese stock market. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes the degree of shareholder base growth (SBG) as a proxy for investor recognition and examines the relationship between investor recognition and stock returns through a univariate analysis and Fama-Macbeth cross-sectional regressions based on A-Share listed firms. Findings The results show that investor recognition is nonlinearly and positively related to contemporaneous stock returns and is negatively related to future stock returns in contrast to the conclusions of Merton’s theory. A long-short trading strategy that involves buying stocks with the lowest SBG rate and that sells stocks with the highest SBG rate will earn an average monthly return of 3.615 percent. Research limitations/implications Though Merton’s theory is not fully reflected in the Chinese stock market, investor recognition is considered an important risk factor in the Chinese stock market. Originality/value No works have yet investigated the validity of Merton’s “investor cognition hypothesis” in relation to the Chinese stock market. This paper strives to fill this gap.

2021 ◽  
Vol 292 ◽  
pp. 02017
Author(s):  
Qiyuan Peng

The research on the relationship between risk and return of new energy stocks is the focus of financial research. Related research focuses more on the relationship between idiosyncratic fluctuation risk and stock returns. In the Chinese stock market, some Chinese investors clearly prefer stocks with high risk characteristics, which leads to overvalued stocks. However, the short-selling restrictions in the Chinese stock market and the heterogeneity of investors have also led to a significant negative correlation between idiosyncratic volatility and cross-sectional yield. There are many studies on the relationship between idiosyncratic volatility and stock returns, but no consistent conclusions have been drawn, and there is a lack of relevant research on new energy stocks. Therefore. This paper collates the data of 70 listed companies in the new energy and new energy automobile industry from 2017 to 2019, tracks the stock returns of sample companies for 3 years (36 months), and conducts in-depth research on the relationship between idiosyncratic fluctuation risks and new energy stock returns. To further verify and supplement the risk-return relationship of China's new energy stock market and provide a certain basis for the company's decision-making behaviour.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-180
Author(s):  
Heng-Yu Chang ◽  
Chun-Ai Ma

Purpose As the capital market in China is still developing, several constraints on a Chinese-listed firm’s financing strategy have a direct impact on its financial flexibility. The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct traditional financial flexibility index (FFI) derived from the western context, provide empirical evidence within eastern context by modified FFI and examine how the managerial efficiency of Chinese-listed firms is demonstrated with modified FFI to escort corporate life cycle hypothesis. Design/methodology/approach By tailored FFI to fit the contemporary operations of Chinese-listed firms, this study investigates how managerial efficiency varies across different life stages to demonstrate the moderating power in the firm performance of financially flexible firm. Findings It is found that financially flexible firms in the Chinese stock market generally experience good firm performance, yet the managerial efficiency could gradually be diminishing at their mature stage even firms’ financial flexibility remains consistent with the agency theory. This paper sheds light on the necessity to reexamine the components in financial flexibility based on the eastern context, and provides avenue to further understand the managerial behavior of Chinese listed firms when considering firm life cycles. Research limitations/implications Although it is difficult for this current study to offer the precise weights on each factor in calculating financial flexibility, the judgment matrix method is adopted to at least provide reliable estimates in accordance with Chinese business contexts with less than 10 percent errors in contrast to the actual weights. Practical implications This modified FFI is particularly suitable for Chinese-listed firms under certain unique financial reporting regulations by adjusting a number of weights and factors. This study may help practitioners understand the managerial conduct of publicly listed firms in China. Originality/value The paper constructs a modified FFI with Chinese stock market characteristics embedded, and provides insightful evidence to explain the new pecking order theory by considering the life cycle stage of Chinese-listed companies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 600-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu Liu Kong ◽  
Min Bai ◽  
Peiming Wang

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the framework of Prospect Theory and Mental Accounting proposed by Grinblatt and Han (2005) can be applied to analyzing the relationship between the disposition effect and momentum in the Chinese stock market. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies the methodology proposed by Grinblatt and Han (2005). Findings – Using firm-level data, with a sample period from January 1998 to June 2013, the authors find evidence that the momentum effect in the Chinese stock market is not driven by the disposition effect, contradicting the findings of Grinblatt and Han (2005) concerning the US stock market. The discrepancies in the findings between the Chinese and US stock markets are robust and independent of sample periods. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest that Grinblatt and Han’s model may not be applicable to the Chinese stock market. This is possibly because of the regulatory differences between the two stock markets and cross-national variation in investor behavior; in particular, the short-selling prohibition in the Chinese stock market and greater reference point adaptation to unrealized gains/losses among Chinese compared to Americans. Originality/value – This study provides evidence of the inapplicability of Grinblatt and Han’s model for the Chinese stock market, and shows the differences in the relationship between disposition effect and momentum between the Chinese and US stock markets.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 545-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Zubair Tauni ◽  
Zia-ur-Rehman Rao ◽  
Hong-Xing Fang ◽  
Minghao Gao

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the key sources of information, namely, financial advice, word-of-mouth communication and specialized press, on trading behavior of Chinese stock investors. The study also analyzed if the association between the key sources of information and trading behavior is influenced by investor personality. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopted the Big Five personality framework and examined the survey results of individual stock investors (n=541) in China. Personality traits of investors were measured by the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Costa and McCrae, 1989). The authors performed probit regression analysis to evaluate the moderating influence of investor personality traits on the association between sources of information and stock trading behavior. Findings The results of the study confirm the previous findings that the key sources of information used by investors as a foundation of their financial choices have a significant influence on their trading behavior. The study also provides empirical evidence that investor personality traits moderate the relationship between the key sources of information and trading behavior. Financial advisors tend to increase the frequency of trading in investors with openness, extraversion, neuroticism and agreeableness personality traits, and tend to decrease the intensity of trading in investors with conscientiousness trait. On the other hand, financial information acquired from word-of-mouth communication is more likely to enhance trading frequency in extraverted and agreeable investors, and is more likely to reduce trading frequency in investors with openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism traits. Finally, the use of specialized press leads to more adjustment in portfolios of the investors with openness and conscientiousness traits than those with other personality traits. An alternative mediated model was not supported. Originality/value This research contributes to information search literature and behavioral finance literature and provides empirical evidence that the psychological characteristics of investors are significant predictors of the variations in information-trading link. The study offers new theoretical insights of investors’ behavior due to the characteristics of Chinese stock market which are unique from other stock markets in the world. To the authors’ best knowledge, no previous study has been conducted so far in Chinese stock market to explore variations with regards to the impact of the key sources of information on trading behavior by the Big Five investor personality and this paper seeks to fill this gap.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoming Xu ◽  
Vikash Ramiah ◽  
Imad Moosa ◽  
Sinclair Davidson

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to: first, test if information-adjusted noise model (IANM) can be applied in China; second, quantify noise trader risk, overreaction, underreaction and information pricing errors in that market; and third, explain the relationship between noise trader risk and return. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a behavioural asset pricing model (BAPM), CAPM, the information-adjusted noise model and model proposed by Ramiah and Davidson (2010). Findings – The findings show that noise traders are active 99.7 per cent of the time on the Shenzhen A-share market. Furthermore, our results suggest that the Shenzhen market overreacts 41 per cent of the time, underreacts 18 per cent of the time and information pricing errors occur 40 per cent of the time. Originality/value – Various methods have been applied to the Chinese stock market in an effort to measure noise trading activities and all of them failed to account for information arrival. Our study uses a superior and alternative model to detect noise trader risk, overreaction and underreaction in China.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mao He ◽  
Juncheng Huang ◽  
Hongquan Zhu

PurposeThe purpose of our study is to explore the “idiosyncratic volatility puzzle” in Chinese stock market from the perspective of investors' heterogeneous beliefs. To delve into the relationship between idiosyncratic volatility and investors' heterogeneous beliefs, and uncover the ability of heterogeneous beliefs, as well as to explain the “idiosyncratic volatility puzzle”, we construct our study as follows.Design/methodology/approachOur study adopts the unexpected trading volume as proxies of heterogeneity, the residual of Fama–French three-factor model as proxies of idiosyncratic volatility. Portfolio strategies and Fama–MacBeth regression are used to investigate the relationship between the two proxies and stock returns in Chinese A-share market.FindingsInvestors' heterogeneous beliefs, as an intermediary variable, are positively correlated with idiosyncratic volatility. Meanwhile, it could better demonstrate the negative correlation between the idiosyncratic volatility and future stock returns. It is one of the economic mechanisms linking idiosyncratic volatility to subsequent stock returns, which can account for 11.28% of the puzzle.Originality/valueThe findings indicate that idiosyncratic volatility is significantly and positively correlated with heterogeneous beliefs and that heterogeneous beliefs are effective intervening variables to explain the “idiosyncratic volatility puzzle”.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 826-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios Constantinou ◽  
Angeliki Karali ◽  
Georgios Papanastasopoulos

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firm-level asset investment effects in returns found for US firms occur within the Greek stock market. Design/methodology/approach The paper utilizes portfolio-level tests and cross-sectional regressions. Findings The authors find that growth in total assets is strongly negatively related to future stock returns of Greek firms. In fact, the relation remains statistically significant, even when the authors control for other strong predictors of future returns (i.e. market capitalization and book-to-market ratio). Furthermore, the authors find that a hedge trading strategy on asset growth rate consisting of a long (short) position in firms with low (high) balance sheet growth generates positive returns, confirming that investment growth has significant predictive power for future returns of Greek listed firms. Originality/value The paper adds to the literature on the generalization of asset pricing regularities attributable to accounting figures in an emerging market.


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