Examining investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions during COVID-19 in the emerging stock market: a case of Pakistan stock market

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shagufta Parveen ◽  
Zoya Wajid Satti ◽  
Qazi Abdul Subhan ◽  
Nishat Riaz ◽  
Samreen Fahim Baber ◽  
...  

PurposeThis study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).Design/methodology/approachThe authors have assessed investors' behaviors and sentiments and the stock market overreaction during COVID-19 using a questionnaire and collected data from 401 investors trading in the PSX.FindingsResults of structural equation modeling revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic affected investors' behaviors, investment decisions and trade volume. It created feelings of fear and uncertainty among market participants. Evidence suggests that behavioral heuristics and biases, including representative heuristic, anchoring heuristic, overconfidence bias and disposition effect, negatively influenced investors' decisions at the PSX.Research limitations/implicationsThis study will contribute to behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries as it has revealed the impact of COVID-19 on the emerging stock market, and its results are generalizable to other emerging stock markets.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study will help academicians, researchers and policymakers of developing countries. Academicians can formulate new behavioral models that can depict the solutions of dealing with an uncertain situation like COVID-19. Policymakers like the Securities Exchange Commission and the PSX can formulate crisis management strategies based on behavioral finance concepts to cope with situations like COVID-19 in the future and help lessen investors' losses in the stock markets. The role of the Securities Exchange Commission is crucial as it regulates the financial markets. It can arrange workshops to educate investors to manage their decisions during crisis time and focus on the best use of irrational and rational decision-making at the same time using Lo (2004) adaptive market hypothesis.Originality/valueThe novelty of the paper is that the authors have introduced overconfidence and disposition effect as mediators that create a connection between representative and anchoring heuristics and investment decisions using primary data collected from investors (institutional and retail) to demonstrate the presence of psychological biases during COVID-19, and it has been done for the first time according to authors' knowledge. It is a contribution and addition to the behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries' stock markets and their efficiency.

Kybernetes ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 1052-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kadir C. Yalcin ◽  
Ekrem Tatoglu ◽  
Selim Zaim

Purpose Based on a thorough review and synthesis of the literature in behavioral finance, the purpose of this paper is to develop three measures of heuristics that tend to influence investment decisions of individual investors. Design/methodology/approach Using perceptual data collected from a sample of 167 individual investors in the USA, the reliability and validity of heuristics measures are assessed by confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling. Then, the second-order model is executed in order to indicate the paths among the study’s constructs. Finally, a multiple-group analysis is conducted to analyze the moderating effects of demographic factors on the relationship between the perceived level of heuristics and their constituent dimensions. Findings Of the three groups of heuristics, salience is found to be the most important followed by mental accounting, while representativeness features as relatively less important. Regarding the moderating effects, only investment experience is noted to have a significant moderating impact. Research limitations/implications The data utilized for testing and validating this instrument was acquired from a relatively small sample of individual investors in the USA, which makes the generalization of findings somewhat limited. Practical implications Both researchers and practitioners in behavioral finance can use these measurement scales to better understand the impact of heuristics on individual investment decisions and also to develop models that relate the critical factors of heuristics to the performance of individual investment decisions. Originality/value To date, there has been no systematic attempt in the extant behavioral finance literature to develop a valid and reliable instrument on heuristics which would aid to improve the quality of decision making in investment analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Slah Bahloul ◽  
Nawel Ben Amor

PurposeThis paper investigates the relative importance of local macroeconomic and global factors in the explanation of twelve MENA (Middle East and North Africa) stock market returns across the different quantiles in order to determine their degree of international financial integration.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use both ordinary least squares and quantile regressions from January 2007 to January 2018. Quantile regression permits to know how the effects of explanatory variables vary across the different states of the market.FindingsThe results of this paper indicate that the impact of local macroeconomic and global factors differs across the quantiles and markets. Generally, there are wide ranges in degree of international integration and most of MENA stock markets appear to be weakly integrated. This reveals that the portfolio diversification within the stock markets in this region is still beneficial.Originality/valueThis paper is original for two reasons. First, it emphasizes, over a fairly long period, the impact of a large number of macroeconomic and global variables on the MENA stock market returns. Second, it examines if the relative effects of these factors on MENA stock returns vary or not across the market states and MENA countries.


Kybernetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 1894-1912
Author(s):  
Samra Chaudary

Purpose The paper takes a behavioral approach by making use of the prospect theory to unveil the impact of salience on short-term and long-term investment decisions. This paper aims to investigate the group differences for two types of investors’ groups, i.e. individual investors and professional investors. Design/methodology/approach The study uses partial least square-based structural equation modeling technique, measurement invariance test and multigroup analysis test on a unique data set of 277 active equity traders which included professional money managers and individual investors. Findings Results showed that salience has a significant positive impact on both short-term and long-term investment decisions. The impact was almost 1.5 times higher for long-term investment decision as compared to short-term decision. Furthermore, multigroup analysis revealed that the two groups (individual investors and professional investors) were statistically significantly different from each other. Research limitations/implications The study has implications for financial regulators, money managers and individual investors as it was found that individual investors suffer more with salience heuristic and may end up with sub-optimal portfolios due to inefficient diversification. Thus, investors should be cautious in fully relying on salience and avoid such bias to improve investment returns. Practical implications The study concludes with a discussion of policy and regulatory implications on how to minimize salience bias to achieve optimum and diversified portfolios. Originality/value The study has significantly contributed to the growing body of applied behavioral research in the discipline of finance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinesh Jain ◽  
Nidhi Walia ◽  
Sanjay Gupta

Purpose Research in the area of behavioral finance has demonstrated that investors exhibit irrational behavior while making investment decisions. Investor behavior usually deviates from logic and reason, and consequently, investors exhibit various behavioral biases which impact their investment decisions. The purpose of this paper is to rank the behavioral biases influencing the investment decision making of individual equity investors from the state of Punjab, India. This research would provide valuable insight into the different behavioral biases to investors and other participants of the capital market and help them in improving investment decisions. Design/methodology/approach The research is conducted on the individual equity investors of Punjab, India. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process was applied to rank the factors influencing the decision making of individual equity investors of Punjab. The primary factors considered for the study are overconfidence bias, representative bias, anchoring bias, availability bias, regret aversion bias, loss aversion bias, mental accounting bias and herding bias. Findings The three most influential criteria were herding bias, loss aversion bias and overconfidence bias. The five most influential sub-criteria were “I readily sell shares that have increased in value (C61),” “News about the company (Newspapers, TV and magazines) affects my investment decision (C84),” “I invest each element of my investment portfolio separately (C71)” and “I usually hold loosing stock for long time, expecting trend reversal (C52).” Research limitations/implications Although sample survey conducted in the present study was based on a limited sample selected from a particular area that truly represented the total population, it is considered as the limitation of this study. Practical implications The outcome of this research provides investors with a better understanding of behavioral biases that influence their decision making. This study provides them a guideline on different behavioral biases that they should consider while making investment decisions. Originality/value The research model is based on the available literature on behavioral finance and the research results and findings would add value to the existing knowledge base.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Aliya Zahera ◽  
Rohit Bansal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the disposition effect that is exhibited by the investors through the review of research articles in the area of behavioral finance. When the investors are hesitant to realize the losses and quick to realize the gains, this phenomenon is known as the disposition effect. This paper explains various theories, which have been evolved over the years that has explained the phenomenon of disposition effect. It includes the behavior of individual investors, institutional investors and mutual fund managers. Design/methodology/approach The authors have used the existing literatures from the various authors, who have studied the disposition effect in either real market or the experimental market. This paper includes literature over a period of 40 years, that is, Dyl, 1977, in the form of tax loss selling, to the most recent paper, Surya et al. (2017). Some authors have used the PGR-PLR ratio for calculating the disposition effect in their study. However, some authors have used t-test, ANNOVA, Correlation coefficient, Standard deviation, Regression, etc., as a tool to find the presence of disposition effect. Findings The effect of disposition can be changed for different types of individual investors, institutional investors and mutual funds. The individual investors are largely prone to the disposition effect and the demographic variables like age, gender, experience, investor sophistication also impact the occurrence of the disposition effect. On the other side, the institutional investors and mutual funds managers may or may not be affected by the disposition effect. Practical implications The skilled understanding of the disposition effect will help the investors, financial institutions and policy-makers to reduce the adverse effect of this bias in the stock market. This paper contributes a detailed explanation of disposition effect and its impacts on the investors. The study of disposition effect has been found to be insufficient in the context of Indian capital market. Social implications The investors and society at large can gains insights about causes and influences of disposition effect which will be helpful to create sound investment decisions. Originality/value This paper has complied the 11 causes for the occurrence of disposition effect that are found by the different authors. The paper also highlights the impact of the disposition effect in the decision-making of various investors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Saloni Raheja ◽  
Babli Dhiman

Purpose In earlier studies, research has shown that EI is the only element, which influences the ways in which people develop in their lives, jobs and social skills control their emotions and get along with other people. It is EI that dictates the way people deal with one another and understand emotions. The research gap is to explore the impact of behavioral factors and investors psychology on their investment decision-making. Design/methodology/approach The information was gathered from 500 financial specialists. The region of research was the financial specialists who contribute through LSC Securities Ltd. in Punjab State. The purposive testing system was used in this examination. Findings The investigation found that the positive connection between the conduct predispositions of the financial specialists and venture choices of the speculators and positive connection between enthusiastic insight of the financial specialists and their venture choices. Yet, the authors found that the enthusiastic insight better foresees the venture choices of the financial specialists than the conduct predispositions of the speculators. Among the different elements of conduct inclinations of the speculator’s lament and carelessness are identified with the financial specialist’s venture choices. Among the various estimations of eager understanding – care, dealing with emotions, motivation, empathy and social aptitudes are related to the hypothesis decisions of the monetary pros. Research limitations/implications The sample selection was based on purposive sampling, rather than a random probability sample. The sample was area specific, restricted only to Ludhiana Stock Exchange in Punjab state. Therefore, the results of the study cannot be generalized with certainty to all the investors investing through other exchanges in other states. The inferences are based on the assumption that the data provided by the investors are true and correct. The findings may be relevant for other stock exchanges as that of the Ludhiana Stock Exchange. However, the authors do not claim the generalization of the results. Practical implications This study also helps to understand the relationship between investment decision-making and risk tolerance of investors. It will helpful for the financial advisors to know the behavioral biases of investors while making an investment decision, and therefore, they can advise investors properly to mitigate such biases. It may help the investors in understanding the subjective part of their behavior and control their emotions while taking decisions for their investment in stock market options. Social implications This research will help investment advisors and finance professionals to judge investors’ attitudes toward risk in a better way, which leads to better investment decisions. Originality/value This study is my own study and it is original and has not been published anywhere.


Author(s):  
Mustapha Chaffai ◽  
Imed Medhioub

Purpose This paper aims to examine the presence of herd behaviour in the Islamic Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stock markets following the methodology given by Chiang and Zheng (2010). Generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH)-type models and quantile regression analysis are used and applied to daily data ranging from 3 January 2010 to 28 July 2016. Results show evidence of herd behaviour in the GCC stock markets. When the data are divided into down and up market periods, herd information is found to be statistically significant and negative during upward market periods only. These results are similar to those reported in some emerging markets such as China, Japan and Hong Kong, where stock returns perform more similarly during down market periods and differently during rising markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors present a brief literature on herd behaviour. Second, the authors provide some specificity of the GCC Islamic stock market, followed by the presentation of the methodology and the data, results and their interpretation. Findings The authors take into account the difference existing in market conditions and find evidence of herding behaviour during rising markets only for GCC markets. This result was confirmed after using the quantile regression method, as evidence of herding was observed only in highly extreme periods. Stock returns perform more similarly when market is down in Islamic GCC stock market. Research limitations/implications The research limitation consists in the fact that this work can be extended to compare the GCC stock markets with other markets in Asia such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Practical implications The principal implication consists in the fact that herding behaviour is limited in the GCC markets and Islamic finance can have an important contribution to moderate the behaviour in the financial markets. Social implications The work focusses on the role of ethics in the financial markets and their ability to reduce the impact of behavioural biases. Originality/value The paper studies the behaviour of investors in the Islamic financial markets and gives an idea about the importance of the behaviour in this particular market regarding its characteristics.


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 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grisna Anggadwita ◽  
Bachruddin Saleh Luturlean ◽  
Veland Ramadani ◽  
Vanessa Ratten

Purpose Women entrepreneurship has been growing and contributing significantly to economic activities, and it may also reduce unemployment, especially in developing countries. Many women entrepreneurs have begun to experience problems, including within their socio-cultural environment, in the beginning of or when they run their businesses. Among those developing countries, Indonesia has been recognized as having diverse ethnic groups, traditions, religions and languages. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the socio-cultural environment affects women entrepreneurs in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach This study aims at exploring the impact of the socio-cultural environment on entrepreneurial behavior, including the involvement of women in entrepreneurial activities in Indonesia as a multicultural country. A theoretical framework is empirically tested to identify the impact of the socio-culture environment on behavior and on women entrepreneurial activity through an integrated analysis. Findings A quantitative method with a causal descriptive approach is used in this study. The data are analyzed by using a descriptive statistics with the structural equation modeling technique. This study is intended to focus on women entrepreneurs in micro, small and medium enterprises in Bandung, Indonesia. A total of 210 women entrepreneurs have participated in this study. Practical implications include useful information for women entrepreneurs to overcome the impact of the socio-cultural environment in their entrepreneurial activities, and suggest insights for future research. Originality/value The development of women entrepreneurship in emerging economies may continuously face challenges, particularly in countries with multicultural attributes.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Arafat Rahman ◽  
Md Mohsan Khudri ◽  
Muhammad Kamran ◽  
Pakeezah Butt

Purpose The transformation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from a regional health crisis in a Chinese city to a global pandemic has caused severe damage not only to the natural and economic lives of human beings but also to the financial markets. The rapidly pervading and daunting consequences of COVID-19 spread have plummeted the stock markets to their lowest levels in many decades especially in South Asia. This concern motivates us to investigate the stock markets’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic in four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This study aims to investigate the causal impact of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on stock market returns using panel data of the countries stated above. Design/methodology/approach This study collects and analyzes the daily data on COVID-19 spread and stock market return over the period May 28, 2020 to October 01, 2020. Using Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel Granger non-causality test, the empirical results demonstrate that the COVID-19 spread measured through its daily confirmed cases in a country significantly induces stock market return. This paper cross-validates the results using the pairwise Granger causality test. Findings The empirical results suggest unidirectional causality from COVID-19 to stock market returns, indicating that the spread of COVID-19 has a dominant short-term influence on the stock movements. To the best of the knowledge, this study provides the first empirical insights into the impact of COVID-19 on the stock markets of selected South Asian countries taking the cross-sectional dependence into account. The results are also in line with the findings of other existing literature on COVID-19. Moreover, the results are robust across the two tests used in this study. Originality/value The findings are equally insightful to the fund managers and investors in South Asian countries. Taking into account the possible impact of COVID-19 on stock markets’ returns, investors can design their optimal portfolios more effectively. This study has another important implication in the sense that the impact of COVID-19 on the stock markets of South Asian countries may have spillover effects on other developing or even developed countries.


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