An empirical examination of factors driving the offshore renminbi market

Following the 2010 establishment of the offshore renminbi market in Hong Kong, renminbi deposits there quickly rose above RMB 1 trillion. In this article, we examine fluctuations between the offshore value of the renminbi in Hong Kong and its onshore value in mainland China. The size of the spot market spread appears to be influenced by stock market sentiment as reflected in the spread between A-shares listed in Shanghai and H-shares listed in Hong Kong. There is also some evidence of a link between the spread and the pace of renminbi deposit growth in Hong Kong.     

Time-varying dependence in European equity markets: A contagion and investor sentiment driven analysis

In the light of the global financial crisis and sovereign debt crisis, this paper investigates the dependence patterns in 24 European equity markets from January 5, 2004 to July 1, 2016. We further examine whether these stressful events trigger contagion. Given that investors tend to behave irrationally in turmoil periods, we add to the literature by studying the effect of investor sentiment on markets correlations. Our results reveal heterogeneity in the time-varying dependence and across markets. Contagion is confirmed in turbulent times, a spillover effect from periphery euro area being detected. We find that similar sentiments increase correlations, especially in crises, suggesting that investors’ perceptions are an important channel of moving markets in the same direction. Furthermore, negative sentiments, such as fear or pessimism, amplify the linkages between markets. Our results offer useful insights to policy makers for reacting timely to financial shocks and for designing a more integrated market.     

Wealth,volume and stock market volatility: case of Hong Kong (1993–2001)

This article attempts to answer the question of whether the gain and loss in property market speculations and rate of information flow play a significant role in stock market volatility in Hong Kong. To test for our wealth–volume–volatility hypothesis, two different measures of volatility: absolute (absolute value of SD from mean with monthly dimension) and conditional (EGARCH) are used and results are compared. In both measures, we find evidence of a statistical presence of a wealth effect on stock market volatility, particularly in the investment of luxury class of property in Hong Kong. To account for this result, we apply the prospect theory, house money effect and the newly developed conditional confidence theory. Although we fail to establish a volume–volatility relationship in our estimation, we offer additional dimensions to the explanation of our observation.     

Speculate a lot

While the residential and commercial property markets in Hong Kong are extensively discussed, little attention is paid to the carpark market. This work contributes to fill the research gap in three ways. First, it provides a simple empirical model to explain carpark ratios in residential buildings. Second, it hand collects transaction-level data and constructs a price index for the carpark market in Hong Kong. Third, it shows that changes in stamp duties increase the volatility in the carpark market. This research may shed light on the current debate on the effectiveness of the stamp duty in stabilizing the real estate market.     

上海证券市场与美国、中国香港证券市场的互动特征

在证券市场领域,美国市场对中国香港市场和上海市场均有影响。在上海市场和中国香港市场之间,上海市场的变动影响着中国香港市场,但并未发现中国香港市场影响上海市场的证据。这说明,上海证券市场已经成为中国区域的主导性市场。     

Asymmetric spillover effects between the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets: evidence from quantile lagged regression

This article surveys the asymmetric spillover effects between the mainland China-based Shanghai Composite Index (SCI) and the Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index (HSI) using a quantile lagged regression model. Compared to previous studies, this article, based on data before and after the 2008 global financial crisis, presents a more detailed analysis, as we investigate the spillovers in terms of returns, volatilities and exchange rates between the renminbi (RMB) and the Hong Kong dollar (HKD) throughout the entire conditional return distribution, including the central quantiles, which are closely related to the normal circumstances, and the extreme quantiles, which correspond to the bear and bull markets. First, we find that the return spillovers from its lagged returns or from the other index not only vary across time but also depend on stock state. Second, while return volatility may boost the stock market in a bull market, it accelerates the decline in a bear market. Third, the depreciation of the RMB relative to the HKD does not significantly affect current returns for the HSI, while it negatively affects current returns for the SCI in a bad state after the crisis. The findings presented in this article will facilitate investors’ understanding of the two stock markets.     

Behavioral Finance as Science: Implications From the Research of Paul Slovic

In this paper, we examine the short-run overreaction phenomenon in the Hong Kong market using data from March 1996 to June 1998. The study period encompasses the pre- and post-Asian financial crisis period. Consistent with prior studies on other markets, we find evidence of overreaction in the Hong Kong market prior to the Asian financial crisis. The overreaction phenomenon is more pronounced for winners than losers. While we document evidence of overreaction in the pre-crisis period, we find that abnormal profits obtained from exploiting such a phenomenon are economically insignificant after accounting for transaction costs. Thus, the Hong Kong stock market is efficient in the weak form. We also explore the possibility that the results are affected by factors such as the bid-ask bounce, the size effect, and the day-of-the-week effect. The results, however, are robust to these factors.     

The Impact of U.S. Individual and Institutional Investor Sentiment on Foreign Stock Markets

This study examines the degree to which U.S. individual and institutional investor sentiments are propagated abroad. Previous studies construe investor sentiments as fully irrational; we find contrary evidence that individual and institutional investor sentiments are driven by both rational and irrational factors, with distinct effects on domestic and international stock market returns. The generalized impulse response functions from VAR model estimations show that U.S. institutional investor sentiments have varying degrees of impact on the equity markets of the U.K., Mexico, and Brazil, and no effect on Chile. Specifically, the individual investor sentiment effect is statistically significant only for the U.K market. Not surprisingly, the two classes of investor sentiments have a strong significant effect on the U.S. stock market returns. The response of the U.S. to individual investor sentiments is relatively more erratic, while the response to institutional investor sentiments is smoother. This difference in pattern becomes more visible when we consider the response of the foreign stock markets. We find significant effects of rational sentiments of institutional investors on the U.S., the U.K., Mexico, and Brazil. However, there is an insignificant effect of the irrational sentiments on the same set of countries. A direct implication of our empirical evidence is that it is important for international asset pricing models to consider the role of rational sentiments of institutional and individual investors on developed and emerging markets.     

行业分析师盈利预测偏差的新解释

对于卖方行业分析师(简称分析师)盈利预测偏差的现象,本文提出一个新假说,即作为理性投资的代表者——分析师的盈利预测偏差会受到投资者情绪或噪音交易的影响,并通过我国的数据证实了该假说。首先,通过实证研究,发现国内行业分析师盈利预测存在系统性的偏差。其次,构造月度投资者情绪指数,通过非参数和参数的统计方法,针对盈利预测偏差的时间序列和面板数据两组数据,证明了情绪是分析师盈利预测偏差的一个重要因素。国际文献中对分析师偏差的绝大多数理论解释通常是基于经典金融学的框架,即假设分析师是完全理性的,其偏差主要来自利益驱动(他们供职的机构或个人利益最大化)。而本文认为情绪和利益驱动因素相结合才能更好地解释分析师预测的偏差。     

Dynamic sentiment asset pricing model

Conventional wisdom suggests that the equilibrium stock price is not affected by investor sentiment, and the equilibrium price at an early time is higher than the one at a later time. In contrast to this wisdom, we present a dynamic asset pricing model with investor sentiment and we find that investor sentiment has a significant impact on the equilibrium stock price. The equilibrium stock price, which is affected by pessimistic sentiment at time 0, may be lower than the one at time 1. Moreover, consistent with the reality stock market, our model shows that time varying sentiments can lead to various price changes. Finally, the model could offer a partial explanation for the financial anomaly of high volatility.     

中国内地公司香港上市:实证分析与理论反思

通过对中国内地在港上市公司发展概况、公司特征等状况的实证统计分析,可以发现尽管内地上市公司已经成为香港市场的重要部分,但不同模式上市的内地公司在行业分布、盈利状况以及市场特征指标上仍存在一定差异。从现实看,尽管内地企业赴港上市符合其微观利益且在短期内无法避免,但从中国金融体系功能完善视角着眼,把优质企业留在内地,夯实内地市场的经济基础是中国金融市场发展进程中至关重要的战略选择。     

Which is a better investment choice in the Hong Kong residential property market: a big or small property?

The relationship between property size and property investment yield is an interesting issue in the real estate market. Previous studies usually use the mean–variance criterion to compare the return-risk profiles of the yields of different property sizes in the United States. However, this criterion has a few shortcomings. This article provides the first attempt to use a stochastic dominance approach to analyse this issue. We adopt two powerful stochastic dominance tests to compare the yields of five property size classes in the Hong Kong residential property market. In our study, we analyse two possible investment outcomes: (1) investors could not rent out their properties, and thus they would gain/lose from the appreciation/depreciation of residential property prices; (2) investors could also gain from rental incomes. Our empirical results provide strong evidence to show that the yields of smaller property classes stochastically dominate the yields of bigger property classes, suggesting that buying smaller properties is a better investment choice in the Hong Kong residential property market.     

Nexus between visitor arrivals and residential property rents in Hong Kong

The cost of living in Hong Kong is among the highest in the world. This paper investigates the effect of tourist arrivals on the residential property market in Hong Kong. It is demonstrated that the soaring number of tourists from Mainland China is pushing up property rents in Hong Kong. The substantial accommodation need generated by the increasing number of students from China is another contributing factor.     

Dynamic asset pricing model with heterogeneous sentiments

The systematic and important role of investor sentiment has been supported by some recent empirical and theoretical literatures. In this paper, we present a dynamic asset pricing model with heterogeneous sentiments and we find that the equilibrium stock price is the wealth-share-weighted average of the stock prices that would prevail in an economy with one sentiment investor only. Moreover, heterogeneous sentiments induce fluctuations in the wealth distribution, which increases stock return volatility and induces mean reversion in stock returns. The model offers a partial explanation for the financial anomaly of mean reversion.     

Return and volatility spillovers effects: Evaluating the impact of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect

This study investigates the impact of the recently introduced Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect. Using high frequency data and dynamic forecasting techniques, we find that the new Stock Connect does contribute to the increasing importance of the Chinese mainland stock market and economic activity. A weak and unstable cointegration relationship is found after this event. Additionally, the Stock Connect has also increased the conditional variance of both stock markets. We observe a leading role of the Shanghai stock market to the Hong Kong stock market in terms of both mean and volatility spillover effects after the Stock Connect. Our study indicates that the opening up of stock markets in China could enhance the leading power, influence the risk level and improve the market efficiency of the Chinese mainland stock market, since the volatility spillover effect from Shanghai to Hong Kong is strengthened. Besides, our results have important policy implications, especially on how policy makers should deal with the increased market interconnectedness and for portfolio managers in choosing potential hedging instruments. The success of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect provides valuable operational experience for the forthcoming Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect which could further improve the market efficiency in China.     

Googling Investor’s Sentiment: Powerful Measure in Conventional and Islamic MENA Financial Markets

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper is to investigate whether investors' sentiment measured by the Internet search behavior constitutes a valid measure of investor’s sentiment on Islamic and conventional indexes of emerging and frontier financial markets in MENA countries. In fact, we examine the relation between googling investor’s sentiment and monthly Islamic and conventional index returns during the period 2004–2016. Using the Dynamic Conditional Correlation, the BEKK-GARCH and the wavelet coherence models, we confirm that googling investor’s sentiment is a perfect indicator of investor’s sentiment measure. Indeed, we find that this measure has the ability to reflect major events such as subprime financial crisis, oil crisis and Arab spring revolution affecting MENA Islamic and conventional index markets. Our finding indicates that investors can use googling investor’s sentiment as an indicator to predict returns and volatility of emerging and frontier markets since it reflects the behavior and emotions of investors in MENA financial markets.     

港澳台—中国对外开放的独特优势

中国对外开放三十多年,经济发展速度之快举世瞩目。作为对外开放的典型标志,对外贸易和引进外资更是突飞猛进,成为世界贸易排名第二、发展中国家引进外资最多的经济体。中国对外开放之所以取得如此成就,港澳台地区功不可没,甚至可言,如果没有同文同种的新型工业化经济体港澳台与中国内地的密切经贸往来,中国对外开放将经历较长的探索阶段。港澳台地区是中国对外开放最早的也是迄今最主要的投资者,是中国承接国际产业转移最重要的推动者,也是中国进军国际市场的最重要中介与平台。无论是珠三角经济带还是长三角经济带,港澳台企业都是重要的支柱力量。中国最早的区域经济一体化协议,是与香港和澳门签署的,今后中国的自贸区战略,港澳台地区将成为核心。     

CROSS‐MARKET TRADING IN CHINA'S LARGE STATE‐OWNED COMMERCIAL BANKS, 2006–2011

This paper examines the differential between the share prices of China's large state‐owned commercial banks traded in Shanghai versus prices observed in Hong Kong. We find a significant role for investor sentiment, as reflected in relative price‐earnings ratios, in explaining these price differentials for all four banks. The share price in Shanghai tends to move ahead of the share price in Hong Kong when more positive sentiment in Shanghai makes local investors willing to pay more for the same predicted earnings. We also identify common trends in relative bank price‐earnings ratios and price differentials across the two markets. (JEL G14, G15)     

Economic policy uncertainty spillovers in small open economies: The case of Hong Kong

This paper studies the extent to which economic policy uncertainty shocks in major economies affect real economic activity in small open economies. We use Hong Kong as a case study. Following Baker, Bloom and Davis (2016), we construct a newspaper‐based economic policy uncertainty index for Hong Kong for the period 1998 to 2016. We estimate international spillovers of uncertainty and find large spillovers of uncertainty from major economies to Hong Kong. Furthermore, using a structural vector autoregressive approach, we show that a rise in domestic economic policy uncertainty leads to tight financial conditions, and lower investment and vacancy posting, dampening domestic output growth.