Does Inclusion in a Smaller S&P Index Create Value?

This study finds overall increases in equity value surrounding addition to the S&P SmallCap and MidCap indexes from 1996 to 2003 and investigates sources of the value gains. Following addition, there are significant increases in proxy variables for stock liquidity and investor recognition, and changes in these variables are impounded into the permanent component of announcement share price revisions. We also find that changes in capital investment intensity are increasing in changes in stock liquidity, consistent with a reduction in the cost of capital following index addition.     

Liquidity, analysts, and institutional ownership

In this paper, we investigate the empirical relationship between institutional ownership, number of analysts following and stock market liquidity. We find that firms with larger number of financial analysts following have wider spreads, lower market quality index, and larger price impact of trades. However, we find that firms with higher institutional ownership have narrower spreads, higher market quality index, and smaller price impact of trades. In addition, we show that changes in our liquidity measures are significantly related to changes in institutional ownership over time. These results suggest that firms may alleviate information asymmetry and improve stock market liquidity by increasing institutional ownership. Our results are remarkably robust to different measures of liquidity and measures of information asymmetry.     

Leverage-based index revisions: The case of Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index

US firms added to the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index, a leverage-based index, witness permanent positive price and liquidity effects, whereas excluded firms sustain negative price and liquidity effects but no decrease in the investor awareness. Included/excluded firms experience a significant drop/no change in the cost of equity. Among the deleted firms, those with an increase in debt level bear a more severe decrease in liquidity and institutional ownership, and an increased cost of equity than those firms without an increase in debt use. Conveying private information on changes in a firm's corporate strategy and operating environment, revisions by a leverage-based index are different from those by size-based indexes.     

Stock liquidity and investment opportunities: New evidence from FTSE 100 index deletions

This paper examines the relationship between stock liquidity and investment opportunities in a sample of firms experiencing a negative exogenous liquidity shock, captured by deletion from the FTSE 100 stock index. We find no statistical association between stock liquidity and investment opportunities. These findings are in sharp contrast to the positive relation between liquidity and investment opportunities reported in US equity markets. This unique result in the London Stock Exchange suggests that deletion from a major stock index does not influence corporate investment decisions because there is no significant change in the cost of capital.     

Does lending relationship help or alleviate the transmission of liquidity shocks? Evidence from a liquidity crunch in China

We examine China’s June 2013 liquidity crunch as a negative shock to banks and analyze the wealth effects on exchange-listed firms. Our findings suggest that liquidity shocks to financial institutions negatively impact borrower performance, particularly borrowers reporting outstanding loans at the end of 2012. Stock valuations of firms with long-term bank relationships, however, outperform the market and experience smaller subsequent declines in investment than peers lacking solid banking relationships. This effect is the strongest for firms that enjoy good relations with China’s large state-owned banks or foreign banks, and weakest for firms whose connections are solely with local banks. We document a positive correlation between the stock performances of firms and the stock performances of lender banks and the likelihood of lender banks operating as net lenders in the interbank market. These results suggest that banks transmit liquidity shocks to their borrowing firms and that a long-term bank-firm relationship may mitigate the negative effects of a liquidity shock.     

Information costs and liquidity effects from changes in the FTSE 100 list

Abstract

In this paper we examine the stock price effect of changes in the composition of the FTSE 100 over the time period of 1984–2001. Like the S&P 500 listing studies, we find that the price and trading volume of newly listed firms increases. The evidence is consistent with the information cost/liquidity explanation. This is because investors hold stocks with more available information, implying that they have lower trading costs. This explains the increase in the stock price and trading volume of newly listed stocks to the FTSE 100 List. We find the reverse effect for the deletions from the FTSE 100.     

THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZED OPTIONS TRADING ON STOCK PRICE BEHAVIOR FOLLOWING LARGE ONE-DAY STOCK PRICE DECLINES

In this study I examine the effect of organized options trading on stock price behavior immediately following stock price declines of 10 percent or more. A matched-pair sample of National Market System option and nonoption firms are analyzed from June 1985 through December 1992. After controlling for the bid-ask bounce, firm size, share price, return standard deviation, and beta, I find that three-day cumulative abnormal returns for option firms are approximately 1.57 percent less than those for nonoption firms. Thus, options trading enhances stock market efficiency and/or liquidity. However, no profitable trading strategies are indicated.     

The liquidity effects associated with addition of a stock to the S&P 500 index: evidence from bid/ask spreads

This study examines changes in stock liquidity, as measured by the bid/ask spread, when a stock is added to the S&P 500 Index. The paper presents evidence of a significant decrease in the bid/ask spread upon S&P 500 addition, however, this effect is limited to only those stocks that were not trading listed options. Further, the decrease in the bid/ask spread for nonoptioned stocks is accompanied by a significant and permanent increase in share price and trading volume. While optioned stocks experience a permanent increase in trading volume, they experience only a temporary increase in share price. The findings for optioned stocks support the hypothesis that the price and volume effects associated with S&P 500 addition derive from temporary price pressure. Findings pertaining to the nonoptioned stocks indicate that the price and volume effects associated with S&P addition reflect enhanced stock liquidity. The decrease in the bid/ask spread for nonoptioned stocks is attributed to informational efficiencies achieved via index arbitrage trading, and it is argued that this effect is mitigated for optioned stocks due to the pre-existence of arbitrage trading between the option and the underlying stock.     

New evidence on the price and liquidity effects of the FTSE 100 index revisions

We study the price and liquidity effects following the FTSE 100 index revisions. We employ the standard GARCH(1,1) model to allow the residual variance of the single index model (SIM) to vary systematically over time and use a Kalman filter approach to model SIM coefficients as a random walk process. We show that the observed price effect depends on the abnormal return estimation methods. Specifically, the OLS-based abnormal returns indicate that the price effect associated with the index revision is temporary, whereas both SIM with random coefficients and GARCH(1,1) model suggest that both additions and deletions experience permanent price change. Added (removed) stocks exhibit permanent (temporary) change in trading volume and bid-ask spread. The analysis of the spread components suggests that the permanent change associated with additions is a result of non-information-related liquidity. We interpret the permanent price effect of additions and deletions combined with the permanent (temporary) shift in liquidity of added (removed) stocks as evidence in favour of the imperfect substitution hypothesis with some non-information-related liquidity effects in the case of additions.     

The Lead‐Lag Relationship Between Cash and Stock Index Futures in a New Market

This paper investigates the lead‐lag relationship in daily returns and volatilities between price movements of the FTSE/ATHEX‐20 and FTSE/ATHEX Mid‐40 stock index futures and the underlying cash indices in the relatively new futures market of Greece. Empirical results show that there is a bi‐directional relationship between cash and futures prices. However, futures lead the cash index returns, by responding more rapidly to economic events than stock prices. This speed is much higher in the more liquid FTSE/ATHEX‐20 market. Moreover, results indicate that futures volatilities spill information over to the corresponding cash market volatilities in both investigated futures markets, but volatilities in the cash markets have no effect on the volatilities of futures markets. Overall, it seems that new market information is disseminated faster in the futures market compared to the stock market. This implies that the futures markets can be used as price discovery vehicles, providing further evidence that derivatives markets contribute to completing and stabilising capital markets in Greece. A further finding of this study is that futures volume and disequilibrium effects between cash and futures prices are important variables in the explanation of volatilities in cash and futures markets.     

Systematic liquidity risk and stock price reaction to shocks

This study examines the relationship between systematic liquidity risk and stock price reaction to large 1‐day price changes (or shocks). We base our analysis on a yearly updated constituents list of the FTSE All share index. Our overall results are consistent with the price continuation hypothesis, which suggests that positive (negative) shocks will be followed by positive (negative) abnormal returns. However, further analysis indicates that stocks with low systematic liquidity risk react efficiently to both positive and negative shocks, whereas stocks with high systematic liquidity risk underreact to both positive and negative shocks. Our results are valid irrespective of various robustness tests such as size of the shock, size of the firm, month‐of‐the‐year and day‐of‐the‐week effects. We conclude that trading on price patterns following shocks may not be profitable, as it involves taking substantial liquidity exposure.     

INSTITUTIONAL TRADING AND SECURITY PRICES: THE CASE OF CHANGES IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE S&P 500 INDEX

This paper examines the common stock valuation and liquidity effects of firms being added to and deleted from the S&P 500 Index. Three potential pricing and trading volume hypotheses are discussed and tested—an Information Content Hypothesis (ICH), a Price Pressure Hypothesis (PPH), and a Liquidity Cost Hypothesis (LCH). The empirical findings indicate that firms being added to (deleted from) the S&P 500 Index over the 1977 to 1983 period experience positive (negative) abnormal common stock returns on the day following the addition. An analysis of common stock liquidity around additions to the Index reveals that while relative trading activity increases in the month of addition, it actually declines in subsequent months. The valuation and liquidity results are consistent to some degree with both the PPH and the LCH and are most likely due to index fund managers adjusting their holdings to reflect changes in the Index.     

The Impact of Changes in the FTSE 100 Index

This paper investigates FTSE 100 index membership changes, which are determined quarterly by market capitalization and should have no information content. Return reversal around index additions and deletions suggests that buying (selling) pressure moves prices temporarily away from equilibrium, consistent with short‐term downward sloping demand curves. In contrast to widely reported results for the S&P 500, there is no evidence of permanent price effects. Further results suggest that investor awareness and monitoring due to index membership do not explain the price effects. There is statistically significant anticipatory trading in stocks that just fail to be promoted to the FTSE 100.     

Market Reaction to Changes in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index

Firms added to (deleted from) the S&P 600 index experience a significant price increase (decrease) at announcement. Firms that newly enter (exit) the S&P universe experience a larger price increase (decrease) than firms that move between S&P indexes. Trading volumes are higher after the announcement and institutional ownership increases (decreases) following index additions (deletions). However, the price and volume effects are temporary and are fully reversed within 60 days, in contrast to the permanent effects reported for S&P 500 changes. Our results support the temporary price‐pressure hypothesis and are similar to results reported for Russell 2000 index changes.     

When noise trading fades,volatility rises

We hypothesize and test an inverse relation between liquidity and price volatility derived from microstructure theory. Two important facets of liquidity trading are examined: volume and noisiness. As represented by the expected turnover rate (volume) and realized average commission cost per share (noisiness) of NYSE equity trading, both facets are found negatively associated with the ex post and ex ante return volatilities of the NYSE stock portfolios and the NYSE composite index futures. Furthermore, the inverse association between noisiness and volatility is amplified in times of market crisis. The negative noisiness–volatility relation is also supported by our analysis on the effects of trade size on price volatility. The overall results demonstrate that volatility increases as noise trading declines.     

An analysis of option pricing under systematic consumption risk using GARCH

An issue in the pricing of contingent claims is whether to account for consumption risk. This is relevant for contingent claims on stock indices, such as the FTSE 100 share price index, as investor’s desire for smooth consumption is often used to explain risk premiums on stock market portfolios, but is not used to explain risk premiums on contingent claims themselves. This paper addresses this fundamental question by allowing for consumption in an economy to be correlated with returns. Daily data on the FTSE 100 share price index are used to compare three option pricing models: the Black–Scholes option pricing model, a GARCH (1, 1) model priced under a risk-neutral framework, and a GARCH (1, 1) model priced under systematic consumption risk. The findings are that accounting for systematic consumption risk only provides improved accuracy for in-the-money call options. When the correlation between consumption and returns increases, the model that accounts for consumption risk will produce lower call option prices than observed prices for in-the-money call options. These results combined imply that the potential consumption-related premium in the market for contingent claims is constant in the case of FTSE 100 index options.     

Ex Ante Hedging Effectiveness of UK Stock Index Futures Contracts: Evidence for the FTSE 100 and FTSE Mid 250 Contracts

Ex ante hedging effectiveness of the FTSE 100 and FTSE Mid 250 index futures contracts is examined for a range of portfolios, consisting of stock market indexes and professionally managed portfolios (investment trust companies). Previous studies which focused on ex post hedging performance using spot portfolios that mirror market indexes are shown to overstate the risk reduction potential of index futures. Although ex ante hedge ratios are found to be characterised by intertemporal instability, ex ante hedging performance of direct hedges and cross hedges approaches that of the ex post benchmark when hedge ratios are estimated using a sufficient window size.     

Stock splits in a neutral transaction cost environment: Evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange

This paper investigates the value consequences of stock splits in a market where institutional characteristics minimize the effects of price realignment and signaling. We find that despite these market conditions, stock splits by Greek firms produce positive price reaction around the announcement day. Further, split factors are directly related to pre-split price levels and deviations from average market prices. Splitting firms also realize earnings improvement which is not reversed after the stock split. Consistent with these findings, market reaction is inversely related to the post-split target price and the size of firm. We interpret this as evidence in support, respectively, of the self-selection and “attention-gathering” hypotheses. As reported in other international studies, there is no evidence of liquidity improvement.     

An information-based model of target stock price runup in the market for corporate control

The stock price runup of target firms in the market for corporate control has been anecdotally attributed to inside trading. Moreover, the empirical merger and acquisitions literature documents a time-varying level and duration of the stock price runup of target firms. Using a market microstructure approach, we model stock price runup as a stochastic process that shifts between a random walk without drift and a predictable process dependent on a parsimonious set of state variables. Consistent with the market microstructure literature, predictability in prices can be exploited only by the informed trader. The model is capable of explaining the complex stylized facts observed in stock price runup. It is also consistent with the merger wave literature, as we find that capital liquidity, economic growth, and market valuations drive the complex dynamics of stock price runup.     

Information,sell-side research,and market making

The interaction between an investment bank's research and market making arms may have important implications for the trading of a firm's stock. We investigate the impact that research has on the liquidity provided by the bank's market maker. Utilizing a large sample of Nasdaq firms, we show that market makers whose banks also provide research coverage provide more liquidity and contribute more to price discovery than do market makers without such research coverage. Finally, we show that such “affiliated” market makers are less affected by uncertainty following earnings announcements. Our results provide new evidence on the sources of liquidity improvements for Nasdaq firms, and suggest that the information produced by banks in the sell-side research process is beneficial to their market makers.