Ruth Seow Kuan Tan

The diminishing calendar anomalies in the stock exchange of Singapore

This study examines the daily stock returns in the Singapore market over a 20 year period from 1975 to 1994. Results indicate the existence of four calendar anomalies. They are the January effect, the day-of-the-week effect, the turn-of-the-month effect and the holiday effect. Subperiod analysis, however, reveals a weakening of these anomalies over time.

Initial Public Offerings of State-Owned Enterprises: An International Study of Policy Risk

Policy risk, rather than information asymmetry, explains the cross-sectional underpricing of privatized initial public offerings. The issuer governments of high policy risk issues tend to retain a large equity stake and underprice more with underpricing increasing in retained equity. While the issuer governments retained equity is an observable signal for policy risk, we find that the quality of a countrys bureaucratic machinery is a more intuitive and practical measure of policy risk. Policy risk also explains the absence of a systematic relation between the initial returns on privatized and private initial public offerings.

Voluntary trading suspensions in Singapore

This paper successfully subgroups firm-initiated suspensions into ‘favourable news’ and ‘unfavourable news’ suspensions. The ‘favourable news’ group experiences significantly positive abnormal returns around the event date. The ‘unfavourable news’ group, on the other hand, suffers a prolonged decline. The high trading volumes in the pre- and the post-suspension periods suggest that firm-initiated suspensions on the Singapore Exchange involve the release of new sensitive information. Firm-initiated trading suspensions are also accompanied by increases in post-suspension return volatility.

The effects of offering method and trading location on the pricing of IPOs in Singapore

In this study, we look at the effects of using different offering methods and examine whether the auction system is a better way of rationing IPOs in the sense of reducing the degree of underpricing. Preliminary findings show that IPOs offered via the auction system appear to have lower underpricing. However this is not confirmed by cross-sectional regression analysis. Results show that only the subscription rate is significantly associated with the degree of underpricing. The other variables such as the market of listing, the price earnings ratio at time of issue and the first day relative volume are not significantly related to the underpricing. The second part of the study compares fixed price initial public offerings (IPOs) listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore Dealing and Automated Quotation System (SESDAQ), the second tier stock market in Singapore, with fixed price IPOs listed on the Main Board. The PE ratios at time of issue and subscription rates of SESDAQ IPOs are significantly lower than Main Board IPOs. Their initial market-adjusted returns are also lower but not significantly so. In the post-listing period, a different picture is seen. SESDAQ issues have significantly higher returns than Main Board IPOs.

CEO Share Ownership and Firm Value

This study examines the effect of CEO ownership on firm performance. The findings suggest that CEO ownership and firm performance are jointly determined. Firm performance affects CEO ownership positively and in turn, CEO ownership has a positive effect on firm performance. Our results also show that firms managed by founder CEOs have better performance and that the CEO duality structure is beneficial in a turbulent environment.

Communication of Private Information and the Valuation of Initial Public Offerings in Singapore

This study examines a sample of 108 initial public offerings in Singapore between 1987 and 1993, and documents the effects of four channels of entrepreneurial communication, that is, retained ownership, audited report, auditor choice and underwriter choice on the valuation of new issues. Our results indicate that retained ownership and book value of equity are significantly and positively associated with the valuation of initial public offerings in Singapore. Underwriter choice and auditor choice are not significant in explaining the valuation of initial public offerings. Issues listed on the Main Board are valued higher than those on Sesdaq (Stock Exchange of Singapore Dealing and Automated Quotation). Firms choosing the auction system are valued higher than those choosing the fixed system. This paper provides evidence on the valuation of new issues in an emerging market in the Asia‐Pacific region. The results are of interest to investors, investment bankers and companies seeking a listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange. We provide some insights on how new issues in the Singapore market are valued.

Efficiency of Regulated and Unregulated FOREX Markets: An Analysis of Onshore and Offshore Renminbi Forward Markets

This study provides new insights about the functioning of Renminbi (RMB) FOREX market by testing the market efficiency in the onshore and offshore RMB FOREX markets. In the onshore and offshore FOREX markets, the RMB forward contracts are designed in similar ways. However, the underlying economic forces and regulatory frameworks are very different in these two markets. We examine the functioning of each market by testing the covered interest rate parity (CIRP) conditions and explore the CIRP deviations in relation to market frictions and government interventions. While the CIRP conditions do not hold in either markets, the offshore market is shown to be more efficient by conveying more private information about investors’ expectation. Overall, we suggest that by opening the offshore market to domestic participants and the onshore market to more foreigners, the forward rates may become more informative with a greater investor mix. These liberalization efforts are important steps in the right directions to improve market efficiency in the Chinese FOREX market.

Active Institutional Investors and Short Sale Constraints around the Global Financial Crisis

In a sample of U.S. stocks, higher stock lending fees predict significantly lower excess returns beyond shorting demand and loan supply. This relation is stronger after October 2008 which is likely attributable to a regime shift in the lending market with the onset of the Global Financial Crisis. We show that active institutional lenders not only respond to demand but also price in private information around earnings news announcements. As lenders raise fees before negative announcement in expectation of higher future shorting demand, they likely create more binding short-sale constraints when short selling could be essential for price discovery.