The Role of Ownership Structure and Board Characteristics in Stock Market Liquidity

Corporate governance plays a significant role in the value of shareholders and share prices, hence stock market liquidity is affected. Previous research has mainly focused on the issue in developed markets, whereas in developing countries there is a need to analyze the influence of corporate governance on stock market liquidity. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the impact of ownership structure and board characteristics on stock market liquidity of non-financial firms of South Asian countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and India. The data in the study is collected from the DataStream for the 2011–2020 period. The study uses a fixed effect model for the analysis of the data and hypotheses testing and generalized method of moments (GMM) is used to check the robustness of the results. The findings of the study indicate that institutional ownership, board size, board independence, and CEO duality have a significant and positive impact on stock market liquidity, whereas managerial ownership has a significant and negative effect on stock market liquidity.

Impact of MiFID II on Romanian Stock Market Liquidity—Comparative Analysis with a Developed Stock Market

In light of previous literature that has investigated the effects of MiFID and MiFID II regulation on stock market liquidity, we investigate whether the introduction of MiFID II in Romania has had any effect on the stock market liquidity. Through our empirical analysis, we were able to estimate a meaningful reduction of liquidity in the Romanian stock market liquidity, in response to MiFID II, in line with the previous empirical literature. We find that the liquidity of the BET index constituents has decreased in the period following MiFID II. We find contradictory results in what concerns the German stock market, which could be explained by the different level of development of the stock markets and of the financial education of investors.

Investor sentiment and liquidity in emerging stock markets

PurposeBehavioral finance and market microstructure studies suggest that the investor sentiment and liquidity are related. This paper aims to examine the aggregate sentiment–liquidity relationship in emerging markets (EMs) for both the sample period and crisis period. Then, it verifies this relationship, using the asymmetric sentiment.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a sample consisting of stocks listed on the SSE Shanghai composite index (348 stocks), the JKSE (118 stocks), the IPC (14 stocks), the RTS (12 stocks), the WSE (106 stocks) and FTSE/JSE Africa (76 stocks). This is for the period ranging from February, 2002 until March, 2021 (230 monthly observations). We use the panel data and apply generalized method-of-moments (GMM) of dynamic panel estimators.FindingsThe empirical analysis shows the following results: first, it demonstrates a significant relationship between the aggregate investor sentiment and the stock market liquidity for the sample period and crisis one. Second, referring to the asymmetric sentiment, we have empirically given proof that the market is significantly more liquid in times of the optimistic sentiment than it is in times of the pessimistic sentiment. Third, using panel causality tests, we document a unidirectional causality between the investor sentiment and liquidity in a direct manner through the noise traders and the irrational market makers and also a bidirectional causality in an indirect channel.Practical implicationsThe results reported in this paper have implications for regulators and investors in EMs. Firstly, the study informs the regulators that the increases and decreases in the stock market liquidity are related to the investor sentiment, not financial shocks. We empirically evince that the traded value is higher in the crisis. Secondly, we inform insider traders and rational market makers that the persistence of increases in the trading activity in both quiet and turbulent times is associated with investor participants such as noise traders and irrational market makers.Originality/valueThe originality of this work lies in employing the asymmetric sentiment (optimistic/pessimistic) in order to denote the sentiment–liquidity relationship in EMs for the sample period and the 2007–2008 subprime crisis.

Determinants of Stock Market Liquidity: Auto Regressive Distributed Lag Based Evidence from the Emerging Equity Market

Purpose: This research examines the impact of oil prices, exchange rate, stock market index, market volatility and inflation on the stock market liquidity. Design/Methodology/Approach: The sample period is 20 years from 2000 to 2019 on monthly basis. We employ the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach for analyzing long run and short run nature of relationship among variables. We also apply diagnostics including, normality check, serial correlation test, heteroscedasticity test and CUSM models for the stability of the models. Findings: We finds that exchange rate and inflation have a long-term negative relationship, but oil prices, stock returns, and stock market volatility have a long-term positive relationship with stock market liquidity. Furthermore, these findings are robust under three different proxies of stock market liquidity for three sectors: text composite, textile weaving, and textile spinning. Implications/Originality/Value: This study extend the existing debate on the relationship between macroeconomic variables and stock market liquidity in developed world to the emerging equity market. It also contributes by examining the impact of macroeconomic variables on the sectorial levels in equity market by using three proxies for stock market liquidity including, Amihud liquidity, average trading and trading volume.

Long Run and Short Run Co movement among Oil Prices and Stock Market Liquidity: Evidence from the Emerging Equity Market of Pakistan

The objective of this study is to examine the long run and short run relationship between oil prices and stock market liquidity in Pakistan stock exchange. Design/Methodology/Approach: The sample spans 10 years from 2010 to 2019. We use auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) to examine long-term and short-term relationships between oil prices, exchange rate, stock market index, market volatility and inflation and stock market liquidity. We use normality checks, serial correlation tests, heteroscedasticity tests, and CUSM models to assess model stability. Findings: Result shows that there exist a long-term negative association between exchange rate and inflation, but a positive relationship is revealed between oil prices, stock returns, and market volatility. These conclusions hold for three sectors i.e. automobile, cement and sugar. Implications/Originality/Value: This study extends the existing debate on the relationship between macroeconomic variables and stock market liquidity to the emerging equity market. For this, it uses three proxies for stock market liquidity: Amihud liquidity, average trading volume, and trading volume average.

The nexus between bond liquidity, stock liquidity and foreign portfolio investment

The purpose of this article was to assess the impact of financial market liquidity on international capital flows in emerging markets. Specifically, the research investigates the effect of bond market liquidity and stock market liquidity on foreign portfolio investments using data for five emerging African countries, being Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria and South Africa, for the period 2000 to 2020. The data was sourced from the Bloomberg and World Bank (WDI) databases. Panel data analysis (fixed effects model) was undertaken using three different liquidity measures: the effective spread; Amihud’s (2002) illiquidity measure; and market impact as measured by trading volume. Our findings revealed mixed results. It was found that stock market liquidity attracted foreign portfolio investments. Although bond market liquidity, as measured by the volume of trade, promoted foreign portfolio investment, it was different for the effective spread, as the higher the effective spread, the higher the inward FPI flows, and vice versa. Results on the effects of the bond effective spread on FPI show that as long as the bonds are above the investable grade, investors are not discouraged by the cost of trading. Our findings thus confirm that FPI inflows are predisposed on liquid and efficient host country financial markets. Further, the entrance of foreign investors in the host country’s domestic financial markets, leads to the enhancing of liquidity in the local market, thus increasing risk sharing between local and foreign investors.