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This paper examines the relationship between the performance and ownership structure of a sample of 98 mid-cap companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India, as mid-cap sector is considered a high growth sector of the economy. In India, the shareholders are broadly divided into two categories-promoter shareholders and non-promoter shareholders. The study results suggest that promoters' shareholding (measure of concentration) is statistically significant in explaining performance. When concentration is treated as endogenous, the same is found to be dependent on performance. The study highlights that the ownership of high growth mid-cap companies of India continues to remain concentrated, even in the post-1992 economic liberalization, impacting the performance amid the general perception that substantial diffuseness has occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the excess returns on the announcement of share buybacks by Corporate India. The study finds significant announcement day Average Abnormal Return (AAR) of 2.77% and Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR) of 7.91% for a sample of 70 announcements for the period 1999-2007. The overall CAR is 7.24% for a 41-day window. The fall in CAR in the post-offer period suggests that all positive returns are realized in the pre-offer period only. This result contradicts the prediction of signaling hypothesis. The fixed price tender offers yield higher announcement returns than open market repurchases in the Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the possible link between different modes of financial liberalization and economic performance. Two emerging economies, Turkey from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and India from the South Asia region, are selected for the analysis as they follow two different approaches for conception and implementation of reforms (shock therapy and gradualism respectively). The study specifically analyzes the nature of capital flows under different liberalization paths. Vector Autoregression (VAR) technique is used to examine the link between international capital flows and the economic growth. The results indicate a strong relation between the economic growth and the non-resident cash flows in the shock therapy case, Turkey. There is also evidence suggesting that India, following a gradualist approach, is less prone to crises with more stable financial variables than Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital expenditure decisions have a long-term effect on the value of the firm. Extant literature posits that stock prices of companies increase very quickly to incorporate such information. However, limited research has been undertaken in this area in India and thus the motivation for the present study. This paper examines stock market reaction to the announcement of 493 capital expenditure decisions made by companies during the period January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2006. An event study methodology is used to examine the share price behavior around such announcements. Results indicate that the market reacts significantly on the day of announcement, thus reflecting that it views such decisions as value enhancing. The study also looks at the size effect of capital expenditure decisions. Results show that the reaction of the Indian stock market is statistically, positively significant for large investments, and positive but insignificant for small investments. The results of the study are in sharp contrast to the international evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines price and liquidity effects associated with stock dividend (bonus) surrounding its announcement and effective day by using event studies methodology. The results show that while there is sufficient evidence of positive abnormal return associated just prior to and on the announcement day, there is no significant return observed on ex-bonus day. On the contrary, significant negative abnormal return was found in long post-effective window (ED to ED+51 days). However, there is a significant improvement observed in trading volume surrounding the announcement and effective day of bonus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient market is a market where share prices reflect all pertinent information, and so earning consistent abnormal returns in the stock market using publicly available information is not possible. How promptly and correctly the share prices adjust to any announcement or event shows the efficiency of stock markets. This paper tests the efficiency of the Indian stock market by considering open offer as an event, using the market-adjusted abnormal return model, and concludes that markets are not efficient in the semi-strong form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the causal relationship between Nifty spot index and index futures market in India. The empirical analysis was conducted for the daily data series from June 12, 2000 to September 12, 2008. The results reveal that there exists a long-run relationship between Nifty spot and Nifty futures prices. Further, the results confirm the presence of a bidirectional relationship between the Nifty spot and Nifty futures market prices in India. It can, therefore, be concluded that both the spot and futures markets play the leading role through price discovery process in India and said to be informationally efficient and react more quickly to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has established the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. This paper investigates that relationship in the context of a change in cash flows and earnings generated by an exogenous shock-an unexpected change in corporate tax policy. The impact of an unexpected change in taxes should be more evident for those companies with better prospects for future profitability. Furthermore, the study argues that the effects of a change in tax policy should have a greater impact on firms with superior corporate governance structures, as better governed companies will more effectively direct the impact on cash flows to shareholders. Results of the study suggest that an interaction between corporate governance and future profitability exists and is most pronounced in smaller sized companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the valuation and initial price performance of Malaysian Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). A number of theoretical models have been put forward to explain why new equity issues are issued at a discount. Foremost among them are explanations involving the adverse selection problem arising from information asymmetry, moral hazard issues relating to the underwriters, and signaling incentives. In this study, three alternative reasons are considered. The first one examines the errors arising from the valuation methods used to price the IPOs. The second one looks at the market conditions at the time of the offer, and the last one tests the efficiency of the Malaysian stock market. The sample consists of 264 companies that were listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange from 1999 to 2004. The results indicate that IPO market prices are efficient in early trading and that underpricing is not influenced by market conditions. However, the results do suggest that underpricing is the result of industry risk and errors arising from the valuation methods used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a real-life application of a fuzzy expert system aimed at rating and ranking firms. Unlike standard Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) models, it integrates financial, strategic and business determinants and processes both quantitative and qualitative variables.Twenty-one value drivers are defined concerning the target firm (strategic assets in place and prospective financial performance), the acquisition (synergies, quality of management) and the sector (intensity of competition, entry barriers). Their combination via 'if-then' rules leads to the definition of an output represented by a real number in the interval (0, 1). Such a number expresses the value-generating power of the target firm inclusive of synergies with the bidder (here named Strategic Enterprise Value). The system may be used for rating and ranking firms operating in the same sector. A regression analysis, using hostile takeover multiples, may be employed to translate the score into price. The real-life case refers to Camuzzi, a natural gas distributor, acquired by Enel, the Italian ex-monopolist of electric energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Price-Earnings (P/E) ratio is a widely used measure of the expected performance of companies, and it has almost invariably been calculated as the ratio of the current share price to the previous year's earnings. However, the P/E of a particular stock is partly determined by outside influences, such as the year in which it is measured, the size of the company, and the sector in which the company operates. Thus, the present paper is based on the examination of various parametric determinants of P/E ratio in the Indian capital market, and it is found that the results of multiple regression model based on standardized variables indicate that 'variability in market price' and 'size of the company' were the most important determinants industry-wise as well as in aggregate analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shareholder value maximization has become the predominant goal of corporations in India and the world over. This goal has gained further importance and focus in the recent years because of the demands made by financial institutional investors, financial markets and competitors on companies to perform and work towards continuous sustainable growth in shareholders' value. To achieve such goals, it is important for companies to device performance measures that are aligned towards the corporate goal of shareholder value enhancement. Many consulting firms have come up with different measures of performance such as Economic Value Added (EVA), cash flow return on investment, and Total Shareholder Return (TSR) to cater to the above need. Of these measures, EVA has become popular in India. The proponents of EVA, Stern Stewart and Co., claim that EVA is superior to other metrics, as it is the financial performance measure that comes closer than any other measure, in capturing the true economic profit of an enterprise, helps managers to make better decisions and motivates them to perform better. A plethora of academic research studies verifying the claims of the proponents have been conducted. The objective of this paper is to present different performance measures available, classify empirical studies carried out on EVA, focus on studies that evaluate the superiority of EVA over other measures, its utility and application, present their findings, and examine the possible reasons for inconsistency in the findings, methodology adopted for study and suggest avenues for future research in this area. This is done through a review of literature of the past two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines competing explanations, based on risk and investor sentiment, for the cross-sectional returns in the Tunisian stock market. First, we examine the explanatory power of Fama and French (1993); and Carhart (1997) risk factors in the cross-section of stock returns. We find evidence for pervasive market and size factors; the value and momentum factors are verified respectively for high book-to-market equity ratio portfolios and winners' portfolios. Then, we investigate the relation between institutional investor sentiment and size portfolio returns. The empirical results indicate a significant effect of sentiment measures on returns and significant effect of returns on change in sentiment. Finally, we document that the addition of sentiment investor to the pricing model dramatically decreases the magnitude of the market factor. Moreover, the size effect is no longer significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of ownership on performance and risk of commercial banks in India during the period 1995-2007. The study, using t-test, fixed effects and random effects models, examines whether there exists any significant difference in the performance and risk among State-Owned Banks (SOBs), Domestic Private Banks (DPBs) and Foreign Banks (FBs), controlling other factors. The empirical results show significant differences in the performance and risk, and FBs seem to be more profitable and more risk-taking than both DPBs and SOBs. Bank capital and demand deposits are positively associated and loans are negatively associated with bank profitability, whereas size of banks and growth rate of economy are negatively associated with bank risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian companies have also started compensating their managers through the issuance of stock options. This paper tests whether the issuance of stock option plans by Indian companies is viewed by the market as value enhancing or not. The study, using a standard event study methodology, analyzes the stock market reaction around the announcement of awarding of 57 employee stock option plans during the period 2006-2007. The study finds no significant price reaction on the announcement day, but does find a significant positive reaction two days prior to the announcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though gold plays a significant role in the financial market, monetary policy, and jewelry, pharmaceutical and electronic industries, its price is often volatile. This study aims to examine the relationship between macroeconomic variables such as exchange rate, interest rate, consumer price index, and financial indicators like the stock exchange of Thailand (SET Index) and bond index with gold prices, and investigate the factors influencing the gold prices in Thailand. This study employs dataset from May 2006 to May 2021, including 1.5 years of the Covid-19 pandemic period. The findings reveal that there is a relationship between exchange rate, interest rate, consumer price index, SET Index, and bond index with gold prices in Thailand, and this holds good during the period of Covid pandemic also. Finally, all the participants in the gold market should consider these factors before entering the market, which would assist them in achieving their investment goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of family influence, peer influence, risk tolerance, financial literacy and financial attitude on retirement saving habits and beliefs. The study was conducted on working people in the age group of above 25 years from both private and public sector, and the final sample consisted of 132 respondents. The study used the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)-AMOS for the analysis of data and to test the proposed model. The respondents were also asked about their choice of retirement saving avenues. The results show that real estate (21% of the respondents) is the most preferred saving avenue, followed by FDs (19% of the respondents) and NPS (17% of the respondents). Shares have been ranked the lowest as an avenue for retirement saving because of their volatile nature. The study found that peer group has a positive and significant influence in shaping the retirement saving habits and beliefs. Financial literacy positively impacted retirement saving habits and beliefs. Similarly, financial attitude also had a significant effect on retirement habits and beliefs. Careless/imprudent financial attitude negatively affects retirement saving habits and beliefs. The findings suggest that financial literacy should be given paramount importance so that people develop positive financial attitude and would be able to save sufficient for their retirement. Financial literacy being the most important factor should not be just limited to printed material and textbooks, but the approach should be adopted since childhood so that people learn personal financial management and plan their savings for retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is a developing country, and long-term investments are essential for the development and growth of the country. Insurance industry in India, being an attractive destination for foreign players, has been witnessing a large number of cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Even the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap has been increased from 26% to 49% and now to 74%. Still this has not satisfied the demand of the sector, and now again the demand for 100% FDI is raised in the insurance sector. Thus, this study examines the impact of FDI on the financial performance of life insurance companies. For that the financial performance of FDI-based and non-FDI-based life insurance companies are compared using CARAMEL model which includes Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Reinsurance and Actuarial Issues, Management Soundness, Earnings and Profitability, and Liquidity. These variables are taken as dependent variables and type of company (FDI-based and non-FDI-based) is taken as the independent variable. The study is based on secondary data, and Mann-Whitney test and ANOVA test are used for analysis. The results suggest that FDI has a significant impact on life insurance companies and FDI-based life insurance companies perform better than non-FDI based life insurance companies in terms of capital adequacy, management soundness and earnings and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies the value influencers that early stage financiers take into consideration in their investment evaluation process based on an analysis of primary data obtained from 96 early stage financers located in India. The study uses exploratory factor analysis to identify the factors. The findings of the study reveal that entrepreneur and finance considerations are the dominating factors that influence angel investors' evaluation of early-stage startups. The former includes track record of the entrepreneur, entrepreneur's network, desire for success, honesty and integrity, while the latter includes monitoring and administrative costs, capital requirements and internal rate of return of the investments. Other influencers include competitive advantage of product/service, barriers to entry and potential for high market growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the present study is to identify the effect of ownership structure on HR disclosure practices in Indian companies. The present study has been conducted on 336 companies listed on 'NSE-500 Index' for the time period FY 2012-13 to 2019-2020. The data is collected from annual reports of the sample companies and Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) ProwessIQ Database. For analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation matrix, Two-Way Least Square Dummy Variable (LSDV) regression model are used. The outcomes of descriptive statistics show that the mean percentage of HRDI is 39.31. It indicates that it is lies on lower side. Additionally, the trend of HRDI is on continuous increasing side. It means companies increase their HR disclosure practices with the passage of time. Further, the outcome of Two-Way LSDV regression model shows that there is significant positive effect of corporate bodies, financial institutions, foreign institutional investors, promoter's holding, company age, market capitalization on HRDI. Overall, it can be said that the study adds to the existing body of literature related to the effect of ownership structure on HR disclosure practices in Indian listed companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the determinants of capital structure, particularly, whether there is any visible change in the determinants of capital structure between pre and post global financial crisis and the speed of adjustment towards optimum capital structure using firm-level data on 140 listed nonfinancial firms in India. The study extends from 2002 to 2015 subdividing the period into pre and post global financial crisis sub-periods. Employing panel data regression analysis for empirical estimations, the study finds that firm-specific factors such as profitability, size, growth opportunities of firm, cash-flow and tangibility play a significant role in determining capital structure; however, the impact of these factors significantly differs between pre and post-crisis periods. Further, the results show that the speed of adjustment towards optimum capital structure in pre-crisis period is relatively higher at 28.5% as compared to 20.1% in the postcrisis period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The banking sector of Bangladesh had been struggling with poor performance before the Covid-19 situation. The reasons included non-performing loans, declining margins in a capped interest rate regime, deteriorations in various efficiency indicators and government-directed restructuring of loans. Now the Covid-19 pandemic has put this sector into further stress. This study examines the impact of Covid-19 on the bank's liquidity by using Pooled Ordinary Least Square (Pooled OLS) on a data set of 20 Bangladeshi commercial banks covering the period from March 8 to December 31, 2020 and the daily Covid-19 affected and death cases. When finding the bank's liquidity response to Covid-19, we also elevate the interacting relationship between the government action variables and the trend in Covid-19 affected and death cases. We find that social distancing and government economic support significantly affect the bank's liquidity. More interestingly, remittances are by far the most crucial components in keeping the liquidity of Bangladeshi banks constant. As there is frugality of literature regarding bank liquidity during the Covid-19 pandemic, this study will be a unique study on Bangladesh. The study results will be beneficial for other developing economies as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We augment an otherwise standard business cycle model with a richer government sector, and add a stochastic costly credit production as in Benk et al. (2005), and a modified Cash in Advance (CIA) consideration. In particular, the cash in advance constraint of Cole (2020) is extended to include private investment and government consumption, and allows an endogenous proportion of total expenditure to be done using credit. This specification is then calibrated to Bulgarian data after the introduction of the currency board (1999-2018). The costly credit production mechanism adds little in explaining business cycle fluctuations. Credit shocks by themselves are an unlikely candidate to drive the business cycle. In addition, the modified CIA constraint produces a transmission mechanism that generates too much investment volatility, and too little variability in hours and wages in the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment decision is a complex activity. It can be defined as the process of choosing a particular avenue from a number of available avenues. There are two types of investments: security and non-security. Behavioral finance theories play an important role in investment decisions, which define that investors' decisions are irrational and are based on various psychological factors. Every investor has different objectives for investment. In this study, an attempt has been made to study the various investment objectives of the investors. Chi-square test has been applied to find out the impact of investment experience on the type of investment, and it is found that there is no impact of experience on the type of investment. To find the difference in the behavior of young and old investors who invested only in security avenues, t-test is applied and no significant difference is observed. An analysis of variance is applied to test the impact of annual income and the percentage of amount invested on investment objectives for investing in security and nonsecurity avenues, and it is found that there is significant impact of annual income on investing in security avenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to design two portfolios, i.e., minimum risk portfolio and optimum portfolio, using Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). It then compares their performance with the benchmark portfolio, i.e., Nifty. For the creation of portfolios, 50 stocks have been considered which are also used for calculating NSE index, i.e., Nifty. The author has designed two portfolios using adjusted monthly closing prices of 50 stocks for a period of 9 years starting from April 2010 to March 2019. The prime objective of the present study is to first identify those stocks which perform better than risk-free securities, i.e., treasury bills (t-bills). Having shortlisted the securities which perform better than t-bills, the proportion of investment for the "shortlisted securities" is calculated in such a manner that it can create minimum risk and optimum portfolios with the help of MS-Excel add-in 'Solver'. Just after the creation of minimum risk and optimum portfolios, their performance is further compared with the performance of Nifty. The empirical analysis evidences the significant role of MPT by showing the performance of minimum risk and optimum portfolios is way better than Nifty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two popular stock indices, i.e., BSE and NSE, are modeled through Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to identify superior combinations for predictive accuracy. Ten-year daily data of closing index along with open, high and low indices are modeled through NARX modeling. The statistical tools AAE, RMSE, MAPE and MSPE are used to find out the predictive accuracy of ANN model. The results indicate ANN (4-10-1) with trainfunction GDX as the best predictor within the final outcome. The high predictive accuracy of the model to predict stock indices suggests a relook at the EMH for long-term data series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study revisits the method and premises of decomposing rating migration matrices from price data. Default and non-default probability term structures are first decomposed from market prices. This represents the composite default probability structure or process of a rating category, when considering rating migration and future ratings probabilities. A rating migration matrix is subsequently decomposed from this output. Output residuals are low, yet the optimization problem finds many local solutions, rather than a solid global solution: different rating migration matrices can result in and produce the same decomposed default probability term structures. Price data contain sufficient information to decompose the default and non-default probability term structures, but lack sufficient data to decompose the non-default probability term sub-structures. The implication is that bond prices are not dependent on future ratings, over and above non-default probability term structures ("survival rates"), as a mirror of default probability term structures, as the latter already contains all price-relevant information. At the same time, it may be unnecessary to decompose rating migration matrices, post default probability term structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions concerning capital structure are crucial for every business organization as maximization of firm value is a complex task and involves the selection of debt and equity securities in a balanced proportion, keeping in view the different costs and benefits attached to these securities. This empirical study aims to explore the factors that affect the capital structure in Indian firms and to know which capital structure theory--whether the pecking order theory or the trade-off theory--justifies the findings of the study. The investigation is performed using panel data procedures on Indian firms during 2009-2018. The dependent variables used are short-term debt, long-term debt and total debt. Profitability, firm's size, growth rate, tangibility, business risk, interest coverage ratio, non-debt tax shield, tax rate and liquidity are taken as the independent variables. The results suggest that variables such as profitability, firm's size, liquidity, risk and tax rate affect the capital structure of the Indian firms, and short-term debt is found to be an essential financing source of the Indian firms. This study has laid some groundwork to explore the determinants of the capital structure of the Indian firms upon which a more detailed evaluation could be based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study makes an attempt to investigate the comovement and cointegration amongst the four sector-specific indices of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), viz., Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Realty for the ten-year period April 2009 to March 2019. The data, for the purpose of the study, includes monthly returns of these four sector-specific indices. The methodology employed is Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing cointegration approach after incorporation of one break period. The study also tests the necessary prerequisites for the ARDL model, which includes the variable stationarity (using Breakpoint Unit Root test), stability of parameters (using CUSUM plots) and serial correlation (using BG-LM test). The results could not directly identify any cointegration amongst the sampled indices. No inference about cointegration (neither accept nor reject) could be drawn in three of the possible four cases, i.e., Nifty Pharma, Nifty Realty and Nifty FMCG, as their computed values were falling within the upper and lower bound critical limits of 'F' bounds test. The results of the fourth index, Nifty Auto, however, showed no cointegration. Since the result of three indices did not give a clear direction about cointegration, it was decided to establish an Error Corrective Mechanism (ECM) for each of these three indices. The results of the error correction showed that for all the three indices, the ECM term was found to be significant and negative. The results of stationarity revealed that Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Pharma are stationary at first difference, while Nifty Realty was stationary at levels, hence the need for ARDL cointegration model. Also, none of the four-sampled indices suffered from autocorrelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dicey regulatory environment surrounding the cryptocurrency sector has raised the concern of investors and potential investors to study the volatility dynamics of cryptocurrencies' returns in the present scenario. The present treatise is an attempt to study the volatility dynamics of most traded cryptocurrencies, viz., Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Ethereum, Litecoin, Stellar, Tether and XRP. The daily closing prices for the period of July 2017 to March 2019 were considered. The data of cryptocurrencies was initially studied for stationarity with the help of Ng-Perron test and Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test. The data was further studied for ARCH effect with the help of Ljung-Box Q-test and Engle's ARCH test. The results confirmed that all cryptocurrencies' return series are stationary and ARCH effect is present in all series. GARCH family models (GARCH, EGARCH, TARCH and PARCH) were applied to study the volatility dynamics. The results confirm the presence of highly persistent volatility and asymmetry in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Ethereum, Litecoin, Stellar, Tether and XRP return series. The diagnostic checking as per Akaike Information Criterion, Schwarz Information Criterion and Hannan-Quinn Information Criterion confirmed that PARCH model is the best fitted model for these series, except EOS. EGARCH is the best fitted model for EOS. These findings may help in reducing the investors' dilemma with regard to taking investment decision in the cryptocurrency sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Management (FRBM) Act led to a conflicting trade-off between fiscal discipline and social sector spending. The scenario was expected to be even worse at the state level, given the imbalance between responsibilities and revenue of the states. This led to a legitimate intellectual apprehension fearing that the states may resort to a deliberate slashing of vital capital and social sector expenditures to maintain fiscal equation. The current study is an addition to the literature along the same line wherein we have tried to highlight the effects of fiscal rule on the fiscal discipline and thereby on social spending in Indian states. A majority of the states were found to have experienced more fiscal impotence in the post-reform period, especially post global melting down of 2008. On average, the states exhibited a conflicting scenario between social spending and fiscal potency, though with some variability between general and special category states. Further, the states are found to rely on deficit financing for their social sector spending mainly. The broad conclusion emerged thereupon was that states in the Indian federation, to maintain their fiscal commitment as mandated by FRBM, have resorted to slashing of social sector spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do the firms revise their capital structure dynamics at stake? This study hypothesizes that the corporate capital structure dynamics spin at changes in the intervening forces. It shows the presence of intervening forces with the Indian firms' financing data. It methodologically uses the Partial Adjustment Models (PAM) in exploring firms' optimal dynamic adjustments and extends the PAM. It shows backward and forward adjustments at separating and semi-separating equilibriums for both high-value and low-value firms. The study also reveals that a pooling equilibrium with firms' dynamic adjustment speeds can be otherwise influenced by the standard errors in separating and semiseparating equilibriums. Firms' choice of Dynamic Adjustment Speed (DAS) is neither a generalized singleton variable, nor does it spin in similar direction across firms and intervening forces. In dynamic financing choices, DASs are divergent at firms' forward and backward adjustments across high-value and low-value firms. Firms' divergent adjustments depend on the presence of macroeconomic variables, nature (forward or backward) of adjustments, and firm-specific financing and non-financing expectation as well. The sample firms plausibly spin to divergent financing and non-financing motives at their dynamic provisions for expected changes in the exogenous variables. Firms' dynamic financing and non-financing motives intervene in their divergent DASs. The effects are transitory and temporary but deliberate at their deviations from the target capital structures. The study confirms the spin effects of intervening forces rather than labeling them as random noise only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at assessing the impact of bank capital, bank liquidity and interaction of bank capital and bank liquidity on the credit growth of Indian banks. The sample of the study includes 26 Indian public sector banks, 19 Indian private sector banks and 25 foreign banks incorporated in India. The time frame chosen for the study is from 2004-05 to 2015-16. The dynamic panel Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) system suggested by Blundell and Bond (1998) has been used to assess the impact of banks' capital and banks' liquidity on their credit growth. The results of the study indicate that after controlling for other bank-specific variables and after also controlling for macroeconomic variables, both bank capital and bank liquidity have a positive and significant impact on credit growth. The analysis of the impact of interaction of bank capital and bank liquidity on credit growth indicates that the effect of bank capital on credit growth is higher for banks which are less liquid than for banks which have high liquidity. The results further show that the impact of both bank capital and bank liquidity is higher for public sector banks than for private sector and foreign banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines the impact of corporate governance on the efficiency of working capital management. For this purpose, manufacturing firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) are selected for the period 2013 to 2017. The results indicate that Corporate Governance Index (CGI) consists of working capital like cash, current ratio, accounts receivable turnover and inventory turnover. The board with more independent directors, dual leadership, and director ownership contributes efficiently in managing working capital. The internal audit committee and external (big four) auditor keep a check on firms' accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction of price fluctuations has always been interesting for academicians, practitioners and investors. However, price fluctuations can never be exactly predicted, but some trends can be drawn in price fluctuations. The first landmark in stock pricing was Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) given by William Sharpe in 1964. After that a deluge of pragmatic evidence came up and challenged the CAPM. Despite being criticized by several researchers, CAPM became a basis for the development of other models. Fama and French gave a three-factor model and claimed that it better explains the price fluctuations of stocks than CAPM, and the anomalies of CAPM are captured by the three-factor model. The present study is an attempt to find the explanatory power of Fama and French three-factor model in the Indian stock market and covers the period from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2016. The Fama and French three-factor model failed to capture the individual asset returns. On the other hand, it explains the portfolio asset returns sorted on the basis of size and value. A significant effect of market risk premium, size premium and value premium was detected on the returns of the assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to understand and assess the financial literacy, financial inclusion and awareness levels of common masses in Rajasthan, India. The study is descriptive in nature. It used a structured non-disguised questionnaire and probability cluster sampling methodology to collect data from 1,205 residents of Rajasthan. 30 clusters were selected for this purpose with a sample size ranging from 2 to 20 in each cluster. The findings reveal that most of the population in Rajasthan still trust banks more than any other financial institution and treat banks as the safest option to save their money. The study also focuses on the kind of training interventions required in Rajasthan towards financial literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study compares 12 general insurance companies in India in respect of technical and scale efficiencies, in addition to their Total Factor Productivity (TFP) scores, in a two output-two input framework for the period 2006-07 to 2015-16 using the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist TFP index. The results revealed that the observed public sector general insurers exhibited higher mean technical efficiency and scale efficiency scores than the sampled private sector general insurers, when 'net premiums earned' and 'income from investments' were considered as output indicators covering all the years of the study period, both under the assumptions of constant returns to scale and variable returns to scale. But a comparison of the TFP scores reflected a marginally higher mean TFP growth rate in favor of the observed private sector general insurers than their public sector counterparts, in respect of both the output indicators over the study period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The share of External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) in the total external borrowing is rising in India. The government is also progressively relaxing the rules to raise ECB. The present study empirically examines ECB in India and its relationship with the exports, imports, Index of Industrial Production (IIP), Foreign Investment (FI), Exchange Rate (ER) and Interest Rate Differential (IRD) for the period September 1999 to September 2012 on a quarterly basis. It also tries to ascertain the cost of ECB, which normally is believed to be cheaper, against the three currencies-US Dollar (USD), Japanese Yen (JPY) and Great Britain Pound (GBP)-for the period 1978-2011. The methodology adopted for this study is based on the application of time series econometrics. It is observed, on application of Augmented Dicky Fuller test and Phillips-Perron test, that the time series of each variable is nonstationary at level and stationary at first difference and, therefore, is subjected to the analysis as a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). From the cointegrating vector it is found that there is a significant long-term positive relationship with IIP, IRD and ER and a negative relationship with imports and FI. In the short run, imports, IRD, ER and FI have positive relationship with ECB, while exports and IIP show a negative relationship. The Granger causality test shows that there is a unidirectional causality. The variance decomposition analysis shows that most of the movements in ECB are explained by the IRD, followed by IIP. The ECB in JPY has been found to be cheaper than in the GBP or in USD in most of the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effect of deposit money banks' efficiency on financial inclusion in Nigeria for the period 2006 to 2013. A non-parametric output-oriented variable return-to-scale Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach is employed to ascertain the technical efficiency of these banks, from which the efforts at ensuring financial inclusion are inferred. The study found that deposit money banks in Nigeria are technically efficient, but individually inefficient, as an industry as well as a sector of the economy in ensuring financial intermediation. This result of technical inefficiency is also complemented by the findings of profit inefficiency for the period under investigation through the use of Financial Ratio Analysis (FRA) approach. On the whole, the results show that both the DEA and the FRA approaches are found complementary rather than competing measures. The study shows that even though the number of depositors and the number of bank branches have reasonably improved, the financial intermediation drives of the deposit money banks are still weak. Therefore, the study recommends that the central bank should regulate the deposit money banks in employing a stakeholder's perspective to financial inclusion and not a selective one which is currently being undertaken by the banks. Also, socioeconomic infrastructure should be developed by the government to enhance banking spread far and wide, while proper orientation and incentive, if need be, should be given to encourage the savings habit of the populace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stock index reorganizations are monitored by the investors, since the firms' earnings are expected to be impacted by these reorganizations, which in turn affect the firm performance. This study examines the extent of change in firm's performance attributed to revisions to the CNX NIFTY index during the period 1998 to 2011. The results report a decrease (increase) in change in the absolute Earnings Per Share (EPS) and the standardized EPS for inclusions (exclusions) compared with their matching peers. Further, the study also examines the firm performance with the help of performance measurement parameters like EPS, Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio, and Tobin's Q. There was a decrease in firm performance of inclusion firms, whereas the opposite was true with the exclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing exposure and linkages of Indian financial markets with the international financial markets, a rational investor (individual or institutional) would opt to reap the benefits of international investment opportunities by constructing a portfolio which would generate good returns with least risk. At the same time, the investor is unaware of the expected degree of return and risk inherent in the portfolio. This requires predicting the market risk of a portfolio using appropriate model. As such, the study attempts to calculate the portfolio market risk of domestic and international hypothetical portfolio using VaR-CoVaR (Variance-Covariance) model. The daily closing prices for a period ranging from 2000 to 2014 of Nifty Spot (NSR), Nifty Future (NFR), INRUSD currency pair Spot (USR) and INRUSD currency pair Future (UFR) are considered for building hypothetical domestic portfolio. The daily closing prices of BRICS nations, US and UK equity market indices from January 2000 to December 2014 have been considered for international portfolio. The investors are classified as risk-averse, risk-neutral and risk-takers. The study concludes that VaR-CoVaR model provides accurate results at 95% and 90% confidence intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is an attempt to reexamine the relationship between nominal effective exchange rates and real effective exchange rates in India. The study investigates both long-run and short-run relationships between the two variables by using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds tests approach. The monthly data of the variables for the period January 1994 to August 2016 was considered for the study. The results of the ARDL tests reveal that there exists a long-run relationship between the real effective exchange rate and nominal effective exchange rate. The results of the error correction mechanism highlight that there exist short-run deviations in their relationship. Any deviation from the long-term nominal depreciation is corrected by 7.3% over each month for real depreciation at 5% level of significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the interdependencies and trading patterns among four categories of domestic investors, namely, institutional, retail, nominee and Proprietary Day Traders (PDTs), and explores the interactions between their daily net fund flows and domestic equity returns. To explore the interdependencies and trading patterns as well as the relations between domestic equity returns and net fund flows, the study employs bivariate vector autoregressive model and impulse response functions. The findings provide evidence that Malaysian equity market return influences the net fund flows of retail, nominee and PDTs investors. These categories of investors follow contrarian trading strategies whereby they trade in the opposite direction to equity market movement. Between the net fund flows of institutional and retail investors, the response of retail net fund flows to return shocks is greater. The findings of this study also demonstrate that there is a weak relationship running from net fund flows of domestic investors except that of net fund flows of PDTs towards Malaysian equity market return. However, the effect of PDTs' net fund flows on domestic equity return is only in the short term, and thus this supports the concept of information dissemination, especially the price momentum. In conclusion, the findings of this study show that the Malaysian domestic equity investors behave distinctively in their trades in relation to the equity market performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes size and activity to measure the development of the banking sector and stock market. Both linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests are used to examine the causality between variables. The results computed from linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests are compared with the residual series, indicating violation of identically and independently distributed (i.i.d.) assumptions and causing the linear causality result to be biased. Therefore, nonlinearity Granger causality test is concluded as more appropriate in examining the causal relationship between variables. This finding can be included by policymakers and governments in their further researches for future planning and policy making to strengthen banking, stock market and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests the presence of day-of-the-week effect with respect to the VIX (fear gauge) and its underlying market index Nifty 50 in India for a period from March 2009 to February 2016 using OLS and GARCH(1, 1) framework. Investors can use the day-of-the-week effects information to avoid and reduce the risk when investing in Indian stock market. The results report the presence of strong positive Monday effect and negative Tuesday and Thursday effects in the Volatility index of India, while in the case of Nifty Monday effect is not found but a weak positive Wednesday effect is present. In order to obtain robust results, the analysis is also presented for sub-periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of the US subprime crisis and the Eurozone debt crisis on stock market behaviors in terms of the volatility of return or risk and asymmetry issues by using GARCH, E-GARCH and GARCH-M methodologies and the daily stock return series, which consists of 2,609 observations from the period June 3, 2004 to June 3, 2014 for selected emerging markets. The findings indicate that the emerging markets exhibit some common patterns in different boom and bust periods. Regardless of the region, economic size, period and the source of the crisis, the study concludes that nearly all markets have strong and significant volatility clustering in the stock return and asymmetric behaviors, which indicates that negative shocks have a greater impact on volatility than positive shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically compares the pricing efficiency of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) across countries in terms of the deviations of trading price from Net Asset Value (NAV) as well as the persistence of such deviations. A sample of 17 ETFs tracking popular equity indices of five dominant countries, namely, US, UK, Japan, Australia and India, are analyzed in this study over a period ranging from April 1, 2000 to March 31, 2012. We find evidence of varying levels of pricing efficiency across countries whereby the US ETFs emerge to be the most price-efficient, with minimum daily deviations between price and NAV averaging less than 0.15% which disappears within a day due to effective arbitrage mechanism. Indian ETFs, on the other hand, are found to be the most price-inefficient, experiencing not only exceptionally high daily deviations averaging from 0.52% to 1.40%, but also persist for three days for most ETFs. These findings indicate gross pricing inefficiencies and the presence of unexploited arbitrage opportunities in the Indian ETF market which commands immediate attention of the market players. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no previous published research study which empirically compares the pricing efficiency of ETFs across countries and this is the first such attempt in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we evaluate the performance of mutual funds in India using higher order moments based asset pricing models. Using a sample of 48 open-ended equity schemes with growth as their objective, we employ two-moment, three-moment and four-moment asset pricing models over the period April 2007 to March 2011. Following Fama and Macbeth (1973) cross-sectional regression approach, the results show that covariance and cokurtosis are not priced in the Indian market, whereas coskewness is statistically significant in the higher order moments framework. Based on adjusted R2, three-moment asset pricing model is found to be the most superior performance measure among the three models in explaining mutual fund performance in India. Employing three-moment model, seven schemes are characterized by statistically significant negative alphas and three schemes exhibit statistically significant positive alphas. It is suggested that the higher order moments based asset pricing models should be employed as coskewness plays an important role in explaining the performance of mutual funds. The findings are relevant for mutual funds investors, fund managers and academic community. The study contributes to the literature of performance evaluation of mutual funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time Series (TS) data often exhibits a cyclical pattern. Security indices time series data is not an exception to that. Three forms of Indian security indices data are studied here for characterization of business cycles. These are of values, returns, and moving variance series of selected sectorial National Stock Exchange (NSE) indices together with the gross indices Nifty and Sensex by considering daily movements. The datasets are analyzed by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) and wavelet-based methods with and without Hodrick and Prescott (H-P) filtering as pre-processing. The FFT analysis shows that most of the indices show business cycles of approximately quarterly duration, whereas wavelet studies identified some structural breaks in some of the considered datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study examines the impact of opening Call Auction (CA) on price discovery of BSE Sensex stocks. CA was introduced on BSE Sensex stocks on October 18, 2010. The objectives of CA are to increase the price efficiency in the opening session, minimize the volatility and to make prices reflect the overnight information. To investigate efficient price discovery, the study adopted Cohen et al.'s (1983a) methodology. The data of one year before and one year after the introduction of CA was considered as the event window period. The study hypothesized that CA facilitates the price discovery. Following Pagano and Schwartz (2003), adjusted R2 was used as the parameter to measure the price discovery. Cohen et al. (1983b) have suggested a methodology using the first and second pass beta estimators to examine the intervalling effect of the securities and market friction. Applying this methodology to the data, the study found that opening CA mechanism does not improve the price discovery. This study contributes to the existing literature on market microstructure and also helps the regulators and exchanges to know the effectiveness of CA and the level of market friction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]