Stock prices and the flow of information in the Athens Stock Exchange

The paper investigates the dynamics of price changes and information flow to the market in the Athens Stock Exchange in Greece using daily data over the period 1988 to 1993. A generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (GARCH) model in stock returns is shown to reflect time dependence in the process generating information flow to the market. Using daily trading volume or value as proxies for information flow, we find them to be significant in explaining the variance of daily returns and to reduce GARCH effects substantially. This has implications for the informational efficiency of the market.     

Interday and intraday volatility: Additional evidence from the Shanghai Stock Exchange

After examining both the interday and intraday return volatility of the Shanghai Composite Stock Index, it was found that the open-to-open return variance is consistently greater than the close-to-close variance. Examining the volatility of interday returns and variance ratio tests with five-minute intervals reveals an L-shaped pattern, or more precisely, two L-shaped patterns, starting with a small hump during both the morning and the afternoon sessions, with the morning session having a much higher interday volatility than the afternoon session. This L-shaped interday volatility is supported by the similarly shaped intraday volatility pattern. This result suggests that the high volatility of intraday returns for the market open is not entirely due to the trading mechanisms (call auction in the market opening) but also due to both the accumulated overnight information and the trading halt effect. The five-minute breaks after the auction and blind auction procedures are the two major driving forces which exaggerate the high intraday volatility observed at the market open.

Market behaviour around bankruptcy announcements: evidence from the Australian Stock Exchange

The corporate distress literature to date has largely focused on the predictive power of accounting variables ( Altman, 2001 ). Following previous literature, this study examines the relevance of abnormal stock returns in discriminating between failed and non‐failed firms (e.g. Clark and Weinstein, 1983; Shumway, 2001). Our results confirm the findings of previous literature that investors in failed firms typically incur substantial negative stock returns leading up to failure announcements. However, in contrast to prior research we do not find evidence of an announcement effect (i.e. negative stock returns on the event day itself or the day preceding). We also document evidence that the bid‐ask spreads of failed firms widen substantially up to 7 months prior to failure, indicating the likelihood of significant information asymmetries across investors in failed firms.     

Stock returns and expected inflation: evidence from an asymmetric test specification

Previous studies that examined the relationship between stock returns and inflation have used a symmetric test specification, and have reported evidence of an inverse relation. We use an asymmetric model to re-examine this fundamental relationship between stock returns and inflation. We partition the study period into sub-samples of high and low inflation regimes. An inverse relation between stock returns and inflation forecasts is found during only low inflation periods, while a positive relation is detected through high inflation periods. In combination, results from both high and low inflation regimes suggest that stocks have delivered favorable inflation protection.      

Financial constraints and asset pricing: comprehensive evidence from London Stock Exchange

This study provides comprehensive evidence on the pricing of financial constraints (FC) risk on London Stock Exchange during the period 1988–2013. Utilizing a large number of proxies for FC, we find that investors are not compensated with higher premia for holding shares of financially constrained firms. To the contrary, in most of the cases, the most constrained firms significantly underperform, both statistically and economically, the least constrained ones. Focussing on the Whited–Wu index to construct a zero-cost FC factor that goes long the most constrained firms and sells short the least constrained ones, we find that this factor carries a significantly negative premium and it is priced in the cross-section over and above the commonly used risk factors.     

The Components of the Bid‐Ask Spread: the Case of the Athens Stock Exchange

We analyse the components of the bid‐ask spread in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), which was recently characterised as a developed market. For large and medium capitalisation stocks, we estimate the adverse selection and the order handling component of the spreads as well as the probability of a trade continuation on the same side of either the bid or the ask price, using the Madhavan et al. (1997) model. We extend it by incorporating the traded volume and we find that the adverse selection component exhibits U‐shape patterns, while the cost component pattern depends on the stock price. For high priced stocks, the usual U‐shape applies, while for low‐priced ones, it is an increasing function of time, mainly due to the order handling spread component. Furthermore, the expected price change and the liquidity adjustment to Value‐at‐Risk that is needed are higher in the low capitalisation stocks, while the most liquid stocks are the high priced ones. Moreover, by estimating the Madhavan et al. (1997) model for two distinct periods we explain why there are differences in the components of the bid‐ask spread.     

证券交易所的可竞争性与我国证交所的发展

在技术与制度激变的全球化时代,证券交易所越来越成为了金融业中的竞争实体,21世纪初全球证交所大范围的整合并购,要求我们对于证券交易所的定位与发展应该有新的认识。本文从证交所在市场的中可竞争性出发,探讨我国证券交易所的未来发展。     

Pricing and information content of block trades on the Shanghai Stock Exchange

We study the pricing mechanisms and information content of block trades on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) for the six year period from 2003 to 2009.There is an average of about 4% block discount, which is large in magnitude and statistically significant, reflecting compensation for locating counterparties and the cost of negotiating terms. We also examine permanent price impacts of the trades and find that discount block trades (DBTs) have significant negative permanent price impacts for various periods extended up to 60 trading days after the block trades. Conversely, premium block trades (PBTs) have small and statistically insignificant negative permanent price impacts, suggesting that buyers do not possess valuable private information. Finally, we classify the trades into buys and sells using a set of stricter rules and note similar results to those of DBTs and PBTs. Of additional note, block sells on stocks with expirations of restricted shares seem to have significant information content. As these trades are more likely to be originated from insiders, our results suggest that they strategically time the sale of these shares to maximize gains.     

Corporate diversification and asymmetric information: evidence from stock market trading characteristics

We examine the relation between firm diversification and asymmetric information empirically using metrics drawn from the market microstructure literature. We find that the average diversified firm in our sample has somewhat less severe asymmetric information problems than a similarly constructed portfolio of stand-alone firms chosen to approximate the segments of the conglomerate. We also find that the information asymmetry of diversified firms is very similar to that of individual focused firms that approximate the conglomerates along several dimensions not including industry composition. We conclude that greater diversification is not on average associated with increased asymmetric information.     

Volatility and information flows in emerging equity market: A case of the Korean Stock Exchange

Applying the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model to the Korean Stock Exchange, this study examines: (1) the statistical property of time-varying volatility in returns and trading volume data found in an emerging capital market, and (2) the property of the conditional variances of returns in predicting the flow patterns of information across the firms of different sizes. The results find that current trading volume as a proxy of information arrival dramatically reduces the persistence of the conditional variance, meaning that the arrival of information is a source of the ARCH effect in the emerging market just as it is in the U.S. The results also show that just as the volatility of larger firms can be predicted by shocks to smaller firms, the volatility of smaller firms can be predicted by shocks to larger firms. However, the volatility spillover effect from larger to smaller firms is more significant than that from smaller to larger firms.     

公司治理、财务状况与信息披露质量——来自深交所的经验证据

本文从公司治理、经营状况角度分析、讨论了它们与信息披露质量间的内在关系。本文以深圳证券交易所2001-2004年信息披露质量评级报告结果及1884家上市公司的面板数据及4年的分年度数据为研究样本进行分析,实证结果表明,上市公司信息披露质量:(1)与独立董事在董事会中所占的比例、财务收益能力、资产规模等因素正相关;(2)与资产负债率负相关;(3)与股权结构没有明显的相关性;(4)董事长与总经理合一型公司,其信息披露质量较低。     

The impact of tick size on intraday stock price behavior: evidence from the Taiwan Stock Exchange

This research examines the impact of tick size on intraday stock price behavior for stocks listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange over the 2-year period of 1998–1999. The sample involves the same 80 firms that trade under the tick size of (New Taiwan Dollars) NT$0.1 and NT$0.5, respectively. The sample firms display a U-shaped intraday pattern of bid–ask spread, volatility, autocorrelation, and trading volume. The empirical results indicate that a larger tick size is associated with a wider bid–ask spread, larger volatility, and more negative autocorrelation. Moreover, a larger tick size is associated with a higher percentage increase of bid–ask spread and volatility in the middle of the trading period. Finally, the effect of tick size on trading volume is insignificant.     

Trade size clustering and the cost of trading at the London Stock Exchange

For the London Stock Exchange, this paper investigates differences in trading costs between market maker (off-book) and order book trades, in the context of clustering in trade sizes and prices. We report several substantial findings. Even after controlling for differences in trade size, the realised spread measure is lower for off-book trades. For the order book, trade size clustering is not associated with differences in transaction costs nor with differences in the information content of trades. For the off-book market, trades in clustered (popular) sizes carry significantly more information than non-clustered trades. Despite the significant differences in the price impact estimates between the order book and off-book, we show that traders placing large orders off-book are still better off than trading via the order book as they benefit from a large discount from the current midpoint price. Additionally, we highlight that price and size clustering tend to occur simultaneously rather than being substitutes in this market setting.     

The effect of settlement regimes on trading cost and market efficiency: evidence from the National Stock Exchange

Using data from 65 of the most actively traded stocks from the National Stock Exchange of India we study the relationship between impact cost and three indicators of market efficiency under different settlement regimes. Our data is uniquely suited for this study because it encompasses a transition by the National Stock Exchange of India from fixed to rolling settlement. As a by-product of our study we are able to examine inefficiencies related to the day of the week on which trades are conducted for different settlement regimes. In summary our data reveals that rolling settlement reduces aggregate impact costs, leading to greater market efficiency. Employing a fixed effects model we show that impact cost has a stronger relationship to our indicators of market efficiency under rolling settlement. However, we find evidence of two structural inefficiencies related to the day-of-the-week on which trades are conducted: 1) under rolling settlement, trades conducted earlier in the week (and settled by Thursday) have lower impact costs, and 2) there is an impact cost premium for Friday trades.     

NYSE execution costs: A case study of a leading bank

Using trade data obtained from a major bank and a measure of indirect execution costs based on the stock price when orders are placed, we investigate indirect costs and their relation to brokerage commissions. For all trades the mean brokerage commission is 6.5 cents per share, and the mean indirect execution cost is about 3.6 cents per share, or 0.1084% of the transactions amount. Contrary to the prediction of the price pressure hypothesis, indirect execution costs are lower for larger size trades. Further, higher indirect execution costs are not associated with lower brokerage commission.     

Continuous Trading or Call Auctions: Revealed Preferences of Investors at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

We use the move of Israeli stocks from call auction trading to continuous trading to show that investors have a preference for stocks that trade continuously. When large stocks move from call auction to continuous trading, the small stocks that still trade by call auction experience a significant loss in volume relative to the overall market volume. As small stocks move to continuous trading, they experience an increase in volume and positive abnormal returns because of the associated increase in liquidity. Overall, though, a move to continuous trading increases the volume of large stocks relative to small stocks.     

Competition on the London Stock Exchange

This paper investigates the determinants of the level of competition on the order–driven market organised by the London Stock Exchange. In contrast to previous empirical market microstructure studies, we treat the level of competition as an endogenous variable. The statistical nature of the measures of competitive activity used in this paper necessitate use of a count regression model. Using a sample 50 stocks, we find that users of the system tend to follow the lead of other users (termed the 'herding effect') and that competition is greater during the period when the US exchanges are open (termed the 'US effect'). In addition, the level of competition is positively related to the bid–ask spread pertaining to a particular stock (termed the 'spread effect'). The latter result is most likely due to traders following a strategy where trade immediacy is traded off against price advantage. Finally, we find that the magnitude of the herding effect, the spread effect, and the fit of the count regression models (termed the 'fit effect') vary in a predictable manner across the liquidity of stocks.     

汇率冲击、公司特质与外汇风险暴露——基于上证180样本股票的分析

开放经济条件下,汇率波动对上市公司价值的影响成为学者和业界广泛关注的重要课题。学者在研究外汇风险暴露的过程中发现,即使是同行业的公司,外汇风险暴露差异也很大,公司特异性因素对外汇风险暴露的水平有重要影响。2005年7月21日人民币汇率形成机制改革启动,人民币汇率波动幅度不断扩大,我国企业面临的外汇风险将不断增大。本文在对我国上市公司外汇风险暴露进行实证分析的基础上,采取两阶段回归方法,对影响上市公司外汇风险暴露公司特异性因素进行深入分析,认为36%的样本上市公司有显著的外汇风险暴露,这一比例高于发达国家的水平;外汇风险暴露与外部经济活动、负债状况和公司成长性密切相关。