Cheng-Yi Shiu

Foreign ownership in the Taiwan stock market--an empirical analysis

Abstract This paper investigates foreign ownership in the Taiwan stock market from 1996 to 2000. From the perspective of informational asymmetry, foreign investors appear to favor large firms and low book-to-market stocks. Analytical results show that foreign investors strongly prefer firms with high export ratios with which they are more familiar on account of their higher foreign sales. Foreign investors hold more shares of high beta stocks than of low beta stocks for small firms. However, this result does not hold for large firms, implying that large firms have lower investment barriers than small firms. Foreign investors, due to their different tax status, may also hold slightly more stocks with low dividend yield. However, evidence for this assertion is inconclusive, with only a weak effect displayed by the sample considered here.

Expiration Day Effects and Futures Trading Profits: Evidence from Taiwan

We set out in this study to analyze the expiration effects of index futures on the cash market in Taiwan, and find that both volatility and trading volume are higher on the final settlement days as compared to normal trading days. We also calculate the volume of open interest for final settlement relating to different classes of traders, as well as the profits from the open interest positions of these traders in index futures contracts. We find that proprietary traders exhibit superior performance whereas foreign investors achieve the worst returns. Our empirical results provide strong evidence in support of the view that the expiration effects in the Taiwan futures market are partially attributable to attempts at ‘marking the close’.

Stock Liquidity and the Choice between Public Offerings and Private Placements

This study attempts to verify whether stock liquidity is an important determinant of the choice between public offerings and private placements. Using a sample of 628 SEOs in Taiwan stock market, we find that, ceteris paribus, firms with highly liquid stocks prefer public offerings, whereas firms with illiquid stocks tend to engage in the private placement of new shares. We also find that issuers experience poor operating performance prior to the private placements. Our findings suggest that private placements serve as a substitute for public offerings when the issuing firms are unable to gain access to the public market.

IPO Underpricing and Information Proxy: A Note

This paper compares the capability of investors type (institutional vs individual investors) and of application value (large vs. small investors) to proxy for the information asymmetry among investors in IPOs. The results show that application value IS a better information proxy than investors type. We also examine the relative merit of investors type and application value as an information proxy in explaining the initial profit in both application and allocation schedules. Empirical results show that application value has a stronger explanative power than investors type in both application and allocation schedules. Moreover, application schedule has a stronger explanative power than allocation schedule in explaining initial profits.

Investor Tax Heterogeneity, Ex-Dividend Prices, Volumes, and Trades: Evidence from an Emerging Market

We analyze 987 ex-dividend events in Taiwan stock market between January 1992 and December 2006, and find that differential taxes really matter for the share prices and investors behaviors around the ex-dividend day. Ex-day price drop ratio increases with the investors’ average preference for dividend relative to capital gains. The excess volume around the ex-dividend day is positively correlated with the degree of tax heterogeneity and the gains from dividend capturing activities, and is negatively associated with the risk and transaction cost. We also find that wealthy investors sell shares cum-dividend and reverse to buy on ex-day; whilst less-wealthy investors, proprietary traders, and corporation shareholders trade in the opposite direction. Overall, our results provide support for the dynamic dividend clientele hypothesis.