Analysis of Factors Affecting Public Interest in Investing in the Capital Market (Case Study on the Paluta Community)

The purpose of this study is to find out how the Paluta community's opinion on the factors that influence people's interest in investing in the capital market, of the 28 respondents who filled out the questionnaire, the Paluta community knew what investment in the capital market was. And investment in the capital market is an investment activity in the form of buying company shares (securities). So by buying company shares, you become the owner of the company. In addition to stocks, investment products in the capital market are mutual funds and bonds.

This Thing of Social Media!

This chapter is about social media and its networking platforms and how they can run or develop a business in the financial sector. As a platform economy, this sector ranges from shadow banks such as mutual funds, leasing companies, brokers, and credit insurance companies to other money market mutual funds. Nevertheless, recent studies in this sector have only focused on the money market, thus creating a vacuum of how social media can run or develop the banking sector through this platform. The social media platform has transformed drastically from being a place for just interaction to buying and selling, forcing many businesses to register on one or two of these media to take advantage of the ever-growing market potentials they offer. However, it also comes with its challenges. This chapter highlights how to manage this medium for a successful business. The study collected data online from bank clients who ever used this platform to transact financial business.

INVESTIGATING MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION CHANNEL SEARCH BEHAVIOUR OF RETAIL INVESTORS FOR INVESTMENT DECISION IN EMERGING FINANCIAL MARKETS

The purpose of this study aims at investigating the major sources of information which drives the investor’s behaviour in investment decisions in Indian Financial Markets. Diverse sources are classified into three categories, that is, financial advice, word-of-mouth communication and specialised press to investigate their effects on the investment behaviour of investors. A total of 258 investors filled a survey on a questionnaire in the National Capital Region of India by using the purposive sampling method. For analysis of data, PLS-SEM was applied on the software version 3.2.9. The key outcome of the study revealed that financial advice was considered as first choice (β = 0.265, p<0.000) to build their investment decision primarily on weekly basis followed by word-of-mouth communication (β = 0.154, p<0.05). Lastly, the mutual fund investors prefer financial newspapers and financial reports published by mutual fund regulatory body and their companies in India to do mutual funds investment. This study proposed a conceptual model in the literature of information search behaviour for mutual funds and contributes significantly to the mutual fund companies and investment agencies to market financial products in an effective manner for investors.

Why do Fund Managers Increase the Lottery-Like Characteristics of the Fund?

We investigate why fund managers invest in lottery-like stocks and whether the behavior that holds more lottery-like stocks affects performance. First, mutual funds that hold more lottery stocks may attract more fund flows. Our results support the theory that fund managers invest more in lottery-like stocks to reflect investors' preferences for extreme payoffs. Second, the level of lottery-like characteristics of mutual funds does not predict managers’ skill and performance. Therefore, fund managers holding more lottery stocks is not a result of managers’ skills. Third, lottery-like characteristics of mutual funds do not significantly affect performance in specific reporting periods (e.g., year-end or quarter-end). Based on this result, we conclude that fund managers do not invest more in lottery stocks to advance their career.

Institutional Herding: Causality and Persistence

We investigate the causality in herding between foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and domestic mutual funds (MFs) in the Indian stock market. The estimated herding levels are considerably higher than those observed in other international markets, and herding is prevalent in small stocks. We find that institutional investors follow contrarian-trading strategies, unlike what was documented in most other markets. Analysis of the aggregate herding measure shows a bi-directional causality between FPIs and MFs. Further analysis using directional herding measures indicate no evidence of causality between institutional herds on the sell-side. But we find causality on the buy-side and it is running in both directions between FPIs and MFs, implying a feedback of information. Given the tendency of institutions for herding in small stocks, adopting contrarian-trading strategies, the observed sell-side causality is perhaps having a salubrious effect. As institutional investors are contrarians, their trading activity will lead to price corrections in small stocks aligning with the fundamentals, thereby contributing to market efficiency. JEL Classification: C23, C58, G23, G15, G40