Search

One of the prominent types of calendar anomalies includes holiday effects, where stocks show abnormally higher mean returns on the days prior to holidays in comparison to other trading days. The current study investigates the existence of holiday effects in the stock exchanges of the Gulf Co-operation Council, namely, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates for the period between January 2009 and December 2020. The national holidays that are considered for the study are New Year's Day, Mawlid al-Nabi (Prophet birthday), Eid-Al-Isra Wal Miraj, Eid-Al-Fitr, National Day, Hegire Day (Islamic New Year), and Christmas Day. The study employs descriptive statistics and the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test. The findings of the study disclosed the significant pre-holiday mean returns for ADSMI, BHSEASI, DFMGI, MSM30, TASI and FTDKUW, whereas significant post-holiday mean returns were found only in MSM30 and TASI. The study provided evidence for the presence of a calendar anomaly like holiday effects in the major indices of the Gulf Co-operation Council and proved the market was not in an efficient form during the study period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at developing econometric models to manage the price risk of Dry and Wet Cocoa beans with the help of ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average) and VAR (Vector Auto Regressive). The monthly price of Cocoa beans is collected for the period starting from April 2009 to March 2020 from the office of CAMPCO Limited, Mangalore, and the ICE Cocoa futures price from the website of investing.com. The augmented dickey fuller test is used to test the stationarity of the series. The ACF and PACF correlograms are used to identify the tentative ARIMA model. Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Schwarz criterion (SBIC), Sigma square, and adjusted R2 are used to decide on the optional AR and MA terms for the models. Durbin–Watson statistics and correlograms of the residuals are used to decide on the model's goodness of fit. Identified optimal models were ARIMA (1, 1, 0) for the Dry Cocoa beans price series and ARIMA (1, 1, 2) for the Wet Cocoa beans price series. The multivariate VAR (1) model found that the US and London Cocoa futures prices traded on the ICE platform will influence the price of Dry Cocoa in India. This study will be helpful to forecast the price of Cocoa beans to manage the price risk, precisely for Cocoa traders, Chocolate manufacturers, Cocoa growers, and the government for planning and decision-making purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maximising financial performance while maintaining adequate liquidity is a crucial and ongoing challenge for bank management, particularly in emerging markets. This study focuses on the relationship between capital structure and financial performance in Jordanian banks, with the mediating role of liquidity risk. Using panel data from 13 central Jordanian banks over the 2015–2022 period, we employ structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse how capital structure ratios (equity-to-asset, debt-to-loan, and deposit-to-asset) influence financial performance metrics (return on assets and net income-to-expenditure ratio). Our findings reveal a significant positive association between capital structure and financial performance. However, liquidity risk fully mediates this effect. Capital structure primarily impacts performance by influencing a bank's liquidity risk profile. Furthermore, the strength of this mediating effect is noteworthy—capital structure exhibits a statistically more robust association with liquidity risk than its direct impact on performance. This highlights the crucial role of managing liquidity risk within the complex dynamics of bank operations. This research makes a significant contribution to the existing literature by demonstrating the positive impact of capital structure on performance using the underlying mechanism through which this effect occurs. The insights of this research provide several implications for practice in the context of banking industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of factors have an influential impact on how an enterprise develops. This study examined factors that operate as market barriers to entrepreneurship in the United Arab Emirates. These factors are fear of failure, risk aversion, lack of social networking, lack of resources, political instability, and economic instability. A survey-based approach framework was used. This survey recruited 150 participants, including UAE students, business owners, and budding entrepreneurs. Multiple-item survey questionnaires and secondary data were used in the data analysis process to identify and evaluate the barriers preventing people from starting new businesses and becoming entrepreneurs in the United Arab Emirates. According to the research results, fear of failure, risk aversion, and lack of resources in the United Arab Emirates make it difficult for business owners to launch brand new business ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]