Day and night returns of Chinese ADRs

Are the returns of Chinese American Depositary Receipts (ADR) more affected by the US market or their underlying home market? We separate Chinese ADR daily returns into day and night returns to investigate the different market effects on ADR pricing. We compare “homeless” ADRs to home-based or cross-listed ADRs to see if they are affected differently by market factors. We find the night returns of Chinese ADRs are significantly affected by their home market (either the Hong Kong market or mainland China market) daily returns and the US market night returns. The US day returns appear to be the most significant pricing factor for the day returns of Chinese ADRs. The homeless ADRs are more affected by the US market and less affected by their home market compared to the cross-listed ADRs.     

Determinants of returns and volatility of Chinese ADRs at NYSE

This paper examines the determinants of returns and of volatility of the Chinese ADRs as listed at NYSE. Using an autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) model and data from 16 April 1998 through 30 September 2004, we find that Hong Kong stock market (underlying market), US stock market (host market), and local (Shanghai A and B) markets all are important determinants of returns of the Chinese ADRs. However, the underlying Hong Kong market has the most significant impact on mean returns of the ADRs. In terms of the determinants of the conditional volatility of the ADRs returns, only shocks to the underlying markets are significant. These results are consistent with [Kim, M., Szakmary, A.C., Mathur, I., 2000. Price transmission dynamics between ADRs and their underlying foreign securities. Journal of Banking and Finance 24, 1359–1382] who find that the most influential factor in pricing the ADRs in Japan, UK, Sweden, The Netherlands and Australia is their underlying shares. Implications of the results for investors are discussed.     

DO FOREIGN INVESTORS PRICE FOREIGN EXCHANGE RISK DIFFERENTLY?

We test whether foreign investors price foreign exchange risk differently from local investors. Drawing from the closed‐end country fund literature, we argue that both differential access to information by foreign versus local investors and different sources of exchange risk that investors face (economic or translation exposure) will lead to different pricing of the exchange risk associated with American Depositary Receipt (ADR) investments. We apply a two‐step method to country portfolios of ADRs of Australia, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Our results show that foreign investors generally price exchange risk differently from local investors, and that the source and magnitude of differences in exchange risk pricing vary significantly across countries. Although significant differences in pricing exchange risk between foreign and local investors are observed for Australia, France, and Japan, no such pricing difference is noticed for the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the pricing differences observed for Australian and French ADRs are mainly attributed to the exchange risk of underlying share returns (economic exposure), whereas the pricing differences for Japanese ADRs are mainly attributed to the exchange risk associated with currency translation (translation exposure). We offer some explanations for our findings.     

Short selling of ADRs and foreign market short-sale constraints

We examine the effect of home market short-sale constraints on securities that also trade in other countries that have more liberal short-sale rules. In particular, we focus on the case of ADRs traded in the US, as in some cases, the home markets of these ADRs prohibit short selling. We find that short sellers more heavily trade ADRs from countries where short selling is prohibited than from markets where short selling is allowed. Furthermore, we find that the greater levels of short selling in ADRs with binding home-market constraints is driven by stocks with greater dispersion of investors’ opinion, low fundamentals-to-price ratios, and recent price increases. Our results support the hypothesis that short sellers target ADRs with home market short-sale constraints because these ADRs are more often subject to temporary misvaluation.     

Diversification gains from American depositary receipts and foreign equities: evidence from Australian stocks

We investigate the relative advantages of American depositary receipts (ADRs), the underlying Australian stocks and the Australian equity index for a US investor seeking international diversification. We find that the ADR market is priced efficiently that the ‘law of one price’ holds. However, ADRs have an economically significant higher reward/risk ratio than underlying stocks, partly due to lower transactions cost. ADRs have a low correlation with the US market under high states of global and regional shocks. Portfolio managers could use the ADRs directly in enhanced indexing strategies. The dominant information flow is found to occur from the underlying stocks to the ADRs, while at the aggregate level the information flow is primarily from the US to the Australian market.     

The local market perception of firm risks during cross-listing events

We examine the local investors’ perceptions on the relative idiosyncratic risks around cross-listing events. We find that increases in relative firm-specific risks around the listing date are temporary and small for Level I American depositary receipts (ADRs) while Level III ADRs have the most variations. For exchange-listed ADRs from emerging markets, there is a significant decrease in the relative firm-specific risk in the year prior to listing, which increases during the cross-listing, while there are only significant increases in relative firm-specific risks for developed market firms. We interpret these as evidences of negative relationship between firm opaqueness and relative firm-specific risks.     

Divergence of US and Local Returns in the After‐market for Equity Issuing ADRs

We study one‐year post‐listing prices and returns to equity issuing ADRs that listed in the US between January 1991 and October 2000. ADRs from countries that impose restrictions on capital flows are priced at a premium to their home market ordinaries. While the mean premium for the full sample is statistically indistinguishable from zero, after an adjustment for asynchronous trading, the magnitude of the premium to ADRs from restricted markets is 11.33% at the 300‐day post listing interval, which is statistically significant. In the short run (30 days) following listing, the magnitude of the premium is larger for ADRs with larger excess demand from US investors. At the longer 300‐day horizon, Nasdaq listed ADRs earn a larger premium than their NYSE/AMEX listed counterparts. Time‐series regressions and two‐stage cross‐sectional regressions establish that the premium to foreign equity issuers is greater if the US listing attracts liquidity and if US returns have a lower correlation with the local country index.     

Lost in translation: Delayed ex-dividend price adjustments of Hong Kong ADRs

Previous research documents that Hong Kong stocks have a full ex-dividend price adjustment consistent with dividends and capital gains being tax free. We examine ex-dividend price behavior of Hong Kong ADRs to assess the impact of differing tax environments in US and Hong Kong. These ADRs typically go ex-dividend before their underlying stock. They experience significant abnormal returns of 1.16% on their ex-day; the average ex-day price drop is only 30% of the dividend. However, ADR prices drop when the underlying stock goes ex-dividend subsequently. The cumulative ADR price drop is equal to the dividend. Thus, the ADR ex-dividend adjustment resembles that of the underlying stock, consistent with home country tax laws governing ADR price behavior. Neither liquidity nor transaction costs can explain the anomalous delayed ex-dividend adjustment of ADRs.     

Exchange rate expectations and the pricing of Chinese cross-listed stocks

I show that the price discounts of Chinese cross-listed stocks (American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and H-shares) to their underlying A-shares indicate the expected yuan/US dollar exchange rate. The forecasting models reveal that ADR and H-share discounts predict exchange rate changes more accurately than the random walk and forward exchange rates, particularly at long forecast horizons. Using panel estimations, I find that ADR and H-share investors form their exchange rate expectations according to standard exchange rate theories such as the Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson effect, the risk of competitive devaluations, relative purchasing power parity, uncovered interest rate parity, and the risk of currency crisis.     

Cross-listing and legal bonding: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions

Using a sample of foreign acquisitions of US targets, this study examines the extent to which cross-listing in the US leads to legal and regulatory bonding, and/or whether reputational bonding proxied by financial intermediaries monitoring, an often ignored component of the bonding mechanism, is an important factor in US investors decision to hold shares in cross-listed firms. We find that compared to US firms, cross-listed firms are less likely to use equity in takeovers of US targets. Further, cross-listed firms from countries with poorer legal protections are less likely to finance with equity and pay higher premiums than cross-listed firms from countries with better legal protections. Using analysts’ coverage and institutional following as proxies for financial intermediary monitoring, we find some support for the importance of reputational bonding. The evidence suggests that while cross-listing reduces barriers to investment, there are limits to its ability to completely subsume both the legal environment and the importance of the monitoring of financial intermediaries. This further suggests that the extent of actual legal and regulatory bonding by cross-listed firms may be more limited than often assumed.     

Taxes,International Clienteles and the Value of ADR Dividends

An alternative approach to valuing dividends is developed and applied to American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on Australian stocks. The values of ADR dividends are estimated from the period when, due to different ex‐dividend dates, the ADRs and their underlying stocks trade with differential dividend entitlements. Australian ADR dividends are valued at less than their face value and the dividends on the underlying stocks are valued at more than their face value. This suggests that ADR dividends are priced by a clientele of US investors placing little value on the imputation tax credits attached to the dividends and that a clientele of Australian resident investors, who obtain value from imputation tax credits, price the dividends on the underlying stock.     

The wisdom of crowds: Mutual fund investors’ aggregate asset allocation decisions

We find that the aggregate asset allocation decisions of US mutual fund investors depend on economic conditions. Both anticipated economic downturns and periods of turmoil lead investors to direct flow away from risky equity funds and towards lower-risk money market funds. These patterns are markedly stronger for investors in low cost and low turnover funds relative to investors in high cost and high turnover funds, consistent with sophisticated investors being more sensitive to changing conditions. Benchmarked against a buy-and-hold strategy, these asset allocation strategies reduce risk without degrading the risk-return trade-off. Our evidence suggests that individual investors, often dismissed as noise traders, collectively react to economic signals in a sensible manner when determining asset allocations.     

A note on the long-run benefits from international equity diversification for a Taiwan investor diversifying in the US equity market

This note provides evidence that long-run benefits exist for Taiwanese investors diversifying into the US equity market over the period of January 5, 1995 to February 16, 2001. The evidence is based on tests for pairwise cointegration between the Taiwanese national equity index and the equity index for the US. We use five cointegrating tests, namely, the Multivariate Trace statistic, Harris-Inder approach, the Johansen method, the KSS approach, and the partial structural model of Bai and Perron [Bai, J., & Perron, P. (2003). Computation and analysis of multiple structural change models. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 18, 1-22]. The results from these five tests are consistent and suggest that the Taiwanese stock market is not pairwise cointegrated with the US stock market. This finding should prove valuable to individual investors and financial institutions holding long-run investment portfolios in these two markets.     

Cross-listing and liquidity in emerging market stocks

In this study, we analyze liquidity costs for stocks and ADRs from the four main Latin American markets. The results indicate that international investors are exposed to different trading costs in Latin America, with market location and firm size as important determinants. In the local market, stocks that cross-list internationally do not always present a liquidity cost advantage relative to non-cross-listed stocks. When the ADR and the local stock markets are compared, large firms present lower trading costs in the home market. The opposite occurs for small firms.     

SHORT SELLING AND PRICE DISCOVERY: EVIDENCE FROM AMERICAN DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS

The underlying shares of some American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) can be short sold in their home markets, and others cannot. This institutional feature offers a unique opportunity to investigate the relation between short selling and price discovery. We hypothesize and confirm that ADR short selling on a U.S. exchange is more informative when the ADRs’ underlying shares cannot be short sold in the home market. These and related results suggest that short sellers make a significant contribution to price discovery. Short sellers’ trading activity, representing more than 20% of total ADR share volume, increases the benefits of cross‐listing on U.S. exchanges.     

The value of excess cash and corporate governance: Evidence from US cross-listings

We examine whether and how a US cross-listing mitigates the risk that insiders will turn their firm’s cash holdings into private benefits. We find strong evidence that the value investors attach to excess cash reserves is substantially larger for foreign firms listed on US exchanges and over-the-counter than for their domestic peers. Further, we show that this excess-cash premium stems not only from the strength of US legal rules and disclosure requirements, but also from the greater informal monitoring pressure that accompanies a US listing. Overall, because investors’ valuation of excess cash mirrors how they expect the cash to be used, our analysis shows that a US listing constrains insiders’ inefficient allocation of corporate cash reserves significantly.     

Investor protection and the Coasian view

The corporate charters of a sample of Mexican firms show that private firms often significantly enhance the legal protection offered to investors, but public firms rarely do so. We construct a model that endogenizes the degree of investor protection that firms provide, using as a springboard the assumption that legal regimes differ in their ability to enforce precisely filtering contracts that provide protection only in those cases where expropriation can occur. Our model generates predictions about the types of contracts that would be employed and the levels of investor protection that would prevail across different legal regimes in both private and public firms.     

The dynamics of volatility transmission and information flow between ADRs and their underlying stocks

This research examines the dynamics of volatility transmission and information flow between ADRs and the underlying stocks. Using a bivariate GARCH model with BEKK parameterisation, the study investigates how changes in volatility in the ADR market affect the volatility in the underlying equity market and vice versa. The findings suggest a bidirectional volatility transmission and information flow between the ADR and underlying stock markets. ADRs and underlying stocks respond to their own innovations as well as to the innovations in each other's market. The findings are consistent for all countries in the sample as well as for different sub-periods. The evidence suggests that the differences in synchronicity of trading period between the US market and other developed markets included in the sample has had no effect on the volatility transmission and information flow between ADRs and underlying stocks.     

Underpricing and aftermarket performance of American depositary receipts (ADR) IPOs

American depositary receipts (ADRs) are negotiable instruments representing foreign company shares traded in US dollars in the US capital market. We present comparative analyses of the pricing and aftermarket performance of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) by ADRs and a matching sample of US firms over the 1990–2001 period. Offered by large, well-known multinationals, ADR IPOs go through a detailed scrutiny, and incur significant costs, during the pre-IPO period to recast financial statements in conformity with SEC rules and the US GAAP. This mitigates the information asymmetry between the IPO firm and investors. We categorize the ADR issuing country as developed or emerging, and our sample includes several cases of privatization of state owned corporations. The analyses indicate that (1) ADR IPOs are significantly less underpriced than comparable US IPOs; (2) IPOs from developed countries are more underpriced; and (3) Privatization IPOs are less underpriced than non-privatizations. The lower underpricing of ADR IPOs persists even after differential IPO attributes, the traditional proxies for information asymmetry and, the unique characteristics associated with ADR IPOs, are accounted for. We conclude that extant literature offers only partial explanation for this puzzling phenomenon.     

Feedback and the success of irrational investors

We provide a model in which irrational investors trade based upon considerations that have no inherent connection to fundamentals. However, trading activity affects market prices, and because of feedback from security prices to cash flows, the irrational trades influence underlying cash flows. As a result, irrational investors can, in some situations, earn abnormal (i.e., risk-adjusted) profits that can exceed the abnormal profits of rational informed investors. Although the trading of irrational investors cause prices to deviate from fundamental values, stock prices follow a random walk.