Susan Sunila Sharma

Time-Varying Herding Behavior, Global Financial Crisis, and the Chinese Stock Market

In this paper, we examine the evidence of herding behavior on the Chinese stock market. Our main findings are as follows. First, we find strong evidence of herding behavior on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Second, we document evidence of asymmetric herding behavior with greater magnitude of herding behavior on up markets than on down markets. Third, our findings suggest that herding behavior is sector-specific and predominant in the industrial and properties sectors. Finally, we unravel strong evidence suggesting that herding behavior is time-varying and in some sectors time-varying herding behavior is more prevalent than in other sectors.

Firm heterogeneity and calendar anomalies

While the calendar anomalies and financial market relationship is one of the oldest relationships in financial economics, we treat this relationship differently by addressing two unknown issues: (a) Do calendar anomalies have a heterogeneous effect on firm returns and firm volatility depending on the sectoral location of firms? and (b) Do calendar anomalies affect firm returns and firm volatility differently depending on firm size? Unlike the assumption in this literature that firms are homogeneous, we show that they are in fact heterogeneous. Using 560 firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) over the period 5 January 2000 to 31 December 2008, we find fresh results, previously undocumented in this literature. We find evidence of calendar anomalies affecting returns and return volatility of firms differently depending on their sectoral locations and size.

The January and Turn-of-The-Month Effect on Firm Returns and Return Volatility

In this paper, we test whether January and turn-of-the-month (TOM) affect firm returns and firm return volatility differently depending on their sector and size. We use time series data for 560 firms listed on the NYSE and find evidence of both January and TOM affecting returns and return volatility of firms. The effects are, however, different for different firms and are dependent on the sectoral location of firms and on firm sizes. These findings imply that January and TOM have an heterogeneous effect on firm returns and firm return volatility.

Investment and oil price volatility

In this note, we consider the relationship between oil price volatility and firm returns for 560 firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Using daily time series data from 2000 to 2008, we find that oil price volatility increases firm returns for the majority of the firms in our sample.

The Effect of the Lehman Brothers’ Bankruptcy on the Performance of Chinese Sectors

Abstract We investigate the effect of the news announcement of the Lehman Brothers’ (LBs) bankruptcy on the performance of Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) sectors. Unlike the assumption in the literature that firms are homogenous, we address the unknown issue: Does LBs’ bankruptcy have a heterogeneous effect on stock returns of sectors listed on SSE? We find statistically insignificant effect of LBs’ bankruptcy on the performance of energy and financial sectors while most of the other sectors suffered significantly. Thus, our results highlight the heterogeneous effect of LBs’ bankruptcy on different sectors and at different time intervals surrounding the event.