scholarly journals Are Investors’ Attention and Uncertainty Aversion the Risk Factors for Stock Markets? International Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis

Risks ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Falik Shear ◽  
Badar Nadeem Ashraf ◽  
Mohsin Sadaqat

In this paper, we examine the impact of investors’ attention to COVID-19 on stock market returns and the moderating effect of national culture on this relationship. Using daily data from 34 countries over the period 23 January to 12 June 2020, and measuring investors’ attention with the Google search volume (GSV) of the word “coronavirus” for each country, we find that investors’ enhanced attention to the COVID-19 pandemic results in negative stock market returns. Further, measuring the national culture with the uncertainty avoidance index (the aspect of national culture which measures the cross-country differences in decision-making under stress and ambiguity), we find that the negative impact of investors’ attention on stock market returns is stronger in countries where investors possess higher uncertainty avoidance cultural values. Our findings imply that uncertainty avoidance cultural values of investors promote financial market instability amid the crisis.

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Narayan Parab ◽  
Y. V. Reddy

Abstract In one of the most historic decisions in the Indian economy, the Government of India demonetized its two highest currency notes (Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000) on November 8, 2016. The Indian stock market does not only consist of domestic investors; however, it does attract a large pool of foreign investors. The present study, considering the significance of demonetization in Indian economy, attempted to examine the association between foreign institutional investment (FII), domestic institutional investment (DII) and stock market returns taking into account a period of 686 days from June 11, 2015, to March 27, 2018, i.e., 343 days pre- and post-demonetization. The study made use of various statistical techniques such as summary statistics, augmented Dickey–Fuller test, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The results indicate a negative relationship of FIIs and DIIs with Nifty 50 Index Returns prior to demonetization; however, such a relationship was noticed to be positive post-demonetization. The present study did not evidence a significant impact of demonetization on FIIs and DIIs, but a significant negative impact was noticed in the case of Nifty 50 Index and various sectoral indices post-demonetization. Nifty Realty sector was found to be severely affected because of demonetization. The study will help the government in understanding the impact of demonetization on foreign and domestic institutional investors, various sectoral indices and evaluate market sentiment post-demonetization and therefore frame necessary policies. Also, the information provided in present study will help various stock market participants.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sowmya Subramaniam ◽  
Madhumita Chakraborty

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to capture the investors' mood related to the COVID-19 pandemic and analyze its impact on the stock market returns.Design/methodology/approachTo capture the investor mood related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors construct a unique COVID-19 fear index based on the Search Volume Index (SVI) from Google Trends (http://www.Google.com/trends/) of the search terms related to COVID-19 words and phrases as revealed by Google and Internet dictionaries. The COVID-19 fear index was used to investigate its impact on the stock market returns.FindingsThe study finds a strong negative association between COVID-19 fear and stock returns. Unlike other studies, the relationship is persistent for a significant period. This relationship is not found to reverse in the following days. The results also highlight that COVID-19 fear strongly impacts the stock market. The sentiment persists for a significant period and is not reversed soon, unlike the regular times in earlier studies.Originality/valueThe study is among the very few studies that constructed COVID-19 fear index using several Google search terms and captured its impact on the stock market returns.


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.


2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Carretta ◽  
Vincenzo Farina ◽  
Duccio Martelli ◽  
Franco Fiordelisi ◽  
Paola Schwizer

Author(s):  
Amalendu Bhunia ◽  
Devrim Yaman

This paper examines the relationship between asset volatility and leverage for the three largest economies (based on purchasing power parity) in the world; US, China, and India. Collectively, these economies represent Int$56,269 billion of economic power, making it important to understand the relationship among these economies that provide valuable investment opportunities for investors. We focus on a volatile period in economic history starting in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis began. Using autoregressive models, we find that Chinese stock markets have the highest volatility among the three stock markets while the US stock market has the highest average returns. The Chinese market is less efficient than the US and Indian stock markets since the impact of new information takes longer to be reflected in stock prices. Our results show that the unconditional correlation among these stock markets is significant and positive although the correlation values are low in magnitude. We also find that past market volatility is a good indicator of future market volatility in our sample. The results show that positive stock market returns result in lower volatility compared to negative stock market returns. These results demonstrate that the largest economies of the world are highly integrated and investors should consider volatility and leverage besides returns when investing in these countries.


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