Multi-Index Conditional Investment Performance Measure: An Empirical Analysis

The present study seeks to examine the mutual fund performance of the open-ended selected equity schemes of UTI based on multi-index measures as well as conditional multi-index measure. It is observed from the analysis that multi-index measure is able to capture the beta and alpha effects on market adjusted basis and the estimated coefficients is a better representative as compared to the single index measure. When time lagged (lagged at 1 month, 2 months, quarterly and yearly) multi-index measures are applied then the estimated coefficients (alpha & beta) which are market adjusted and time adjusted look more representative than the multi-index measure (without lagged effect). Finally, when we extended the time lagged multi-index measure on a conditional way (conditional on public information variables) then we observe that conditional multi-index lagged measure provides much more representative results in all respects as compared to the all measures after conditioning public information effects.

Herd Behaviour: How Decisive is the Noise in the NSE and BSE Stock Markets?

Do investors in the stock markets act/react on true information or noise? Do they believe on their own information or simply herd? The study seeks to explore these typical research queries from the behavioral finance perspectives. In particular, it develops a new theory of herding behavior and extends the models of Banerjee (1992) and Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer, and Welch (1992). The study also empirically tests the same on the Indian context with the high frequency intraday trading data for the real trade-time or time-stamp, trade-volume, and trade-price of ten sample scripts listed for their trading in both markets - the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National stock Exchange (NSE). The study contributes to the literature with original findings. It shows that investors in the two Indian stock markets show crowd of positive and negative herding as well significantly and there is huge noise along with information in the markets equilibrium pricing mechanism.

Causal Relationship between Gold, Crude Oil & US Dollar Rates and S&P BSE 100 in India: An Experimental Study

In the present globalized business scenario, volatility in gold price, international crude oil price, and US Dollar exchange rate are likely to stimulate uncertainty in stock market conditions globally. The degree of uncertainty in stock market is high in the case of developing nations like India. Therefore, the study of causal relationship of gold, crude oil, and US Dollar rates with the stock market indices (S&P BSE 100) in India is more appropriate. The researchers have analyzed these macroeconomic variables along with the S&P BSE 100 with the help of econometric tools viz. Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test for Unit-Root, Johansen Co-Integration Test, Pairwise Granger Causality Tests, Vector Auto Regression Modeling, Variance Decomposition test, and Impulse responses analysis. The econometric research software called EVIEWS 6 was used to apply all those tools successfully. The result shows that there is a high impression in the Indian stock market due to the volatility happens in the described macroeconomic factors.

Cointegration of Asian Stock Markets: Empirical Evidence from India

At present stock return is significantly related to other global stock markets. The present paper empirically investigates the short run and long run equilibrium relationship between the stock market of India, Japan Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, China, and Australia monthly data during January 1995 to December 2013. Researcher employs correlation test, multivariate co-integration framework, Vector Auto Regressive error-correction model and Granger causality test with reference to financial up evils in Asia and world viz., Asian crisis (1997/98), financial crisis (2008) Inflation conditions, Natural disasters, financial up evils etc. of long run relationship. Results find that the Indian stock market return is significantly co-integrated with long run and short run situations/causalities in Asian Stock returns.

Bull and Bear Phases: An Empirical Perusal of Indian Stock Market NSE and BSE Stock Markets?

In general, any one known to stock market is acquainted with the phenomenon of bull and bear phases, but whether the traders or investors put air to these phases while making a decision to buy, sell, or stay invested. The present paper attempts to identify and analyze the two most popular market phases, i.e. bull and bear, for better investment decisions with the use of Bry and Boschan Algorithm and time series data. Further, it seeks to analyze the distributional characteristics of the variances in stock returns and search evidence of asymmetries, if any, in volatility under different market conditions which may help to shed light on the bull and bear phases of Indian equity market. The study arrange for evidence that in bull markets, stock prices run far ahead of earnings and for fairly long periods of time. The paper indicates 12 bull and bear phases in the Sensex and Nifty during the sample period of 19 years with the associated factors responsible for the shift of bull and bear market phases. The results provide considerable support for the view that markets choose to ignore adverse possibilities and react with zest to favorable possibilities and market declines can partly be explained by increases in risk.

Mobile Money A Catalyst for Financial Inclusion in Developing Economies: A Case Study of Zimbabwe using FinScope Survey Data

Mobile money in Zimbabwe has extensively extended the frontiers of financial inclusion to reach millions who were earlier excluded within a relatively short space of time. The growing use of mobile phones in transferring money and making payments has significantly altered the countrys financial inclusion landscape as millions who had been hitherto excluded can now perform financial transactions in a relatively cheap, reliable and secure way. The FinScope results found out that 45% of the adult population use mobile money services. Of those using mobile money, 65% mentioned that is convenient, while 36% mentioned that it is cheap. Mobile money is accessible. These drivers are in the backdrop of few or no bank branches in rural communities as well as time and cost of accessing the bank branches. In Zimbabwe, mobile money is mostly used as a vehicle for remittances. While some people are enjoying mobile money services, it is important to mention that there are still people who are excluded from the formal financial system. The reasons why people do not use mobile money are mainly related to poverty issues. Mobile money remains a viable option to push the landscape of financial inclusion in Zimbabwe and other emerging markets where the formal financial system might not be strong.

CEO Compensation and Acquired and Acquiring Companies in Large Corporate Acquisitions

This paper examines the relative sensitivity of CEO compensation of both acquiring and acquired firms in the top 30 U.S. largest corporate acquisitions in each year for the period of 2003 to 2012. We find that total compensation and bonus granted to executive compensation for acquired companies, not acquiring companies, are significantly related to the amount of acquisition deal even after the size and firm performance are controlled for. Both acquiring and acquired CEOs are found to make the significantly higher compensation than the matched sample firms in the same industry and calendar year. We also find that executives with higher managerial power, as measured by a lower salary-based compensation mix, prior to a corporate acquisition are more likely to receive a higher executive pay in the year of acquisition. The association between executive compensation and managerial power seems to be stronger for acquired firms than for acquiring firms in corporate acquisition. Overall, our findings suggest that corporate acquisition has higher impacts on executive compensation for acquired firm CEOs than for acquiring firm CEOs.

Test of CAPM: A Study of India and US

Asset pricing is one of the most important research areas in the field of finance. The simple CAPM model (capital asset pricing model) relates the return of the stocks and portfolios to the market factor captured by beta. Since the formulation of CAPM in 1960s, asset pricing has covered a long distance. We conduct the test of CAPM for India and US by using data from January 2001 to December 2015. We run 84 second pass cross-sectional regression equations to test the applicability of CAPM. The results of our test find that CAPM is not able to capture the cross section of average returns both in India and US and we should consider the alternative asset pricing models to establish the risk-return relationship.

Are Stock Markets Interdependent? An Empirical Study of Selected Market Indices

It has been acclaimed by various researchers that international diversification has reduced its charm as return-risk of the world markets are highly correlated due to information spillover effect and globalization. This study examines inter linkages and interactions, if any, among the selected twelve indices of developed and emerging economies. The study applies descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients and Granger Causality test to check basic characteristics of each indices and their correlation and impact on each other. Granger Causality test for some indices shows that return of one market index had causal influence on return in other market index. The finding of this paper gives good insights to the international investors who are looking to reduce risk for a given level of return.

Are Indian Investors Return Chasers? An Anatomy of their Trading Behavior

Momentum has remained an unanswered anomaly in finance literature. Researchers have pointed out two arguments, whether the source of prior return anomalies are rational or behavioral. In this paper, we examined return chasing tendency investors and the profitability of probable price momentum strategy in Indian equity market using the monthly return data of equities represented in BSE-500 index encompassing the time period from July 2004 to Jun 2014. Study is an attempt to analyze momentum effect before, during and after the financial crisis of 2007–2009 to check whether investors continue to follow the same strategy during crisis or their behavior undergoes any change. Also study examined the adequacy of rational CAPM models to explain momentum profits. The result evidenced a strong presence of economically and statistically significant momentum profit in Indian stock market equity returns. Therefore return chasing tendency of Indian investors is found to be persistent in the intermediate horizon in Indian context. Closer observation of the results reveals that, Indian investors are winners chasers rather than investor in past losers. Study also confirmed that investors sentiments are volatile according to general market environment and inadequacy of rationalist equilibrium model to explain momentum profits.