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Business and Economics > Investments: Stocks

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 129 items for :

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Cover IMF Working Papers
IMF-Supported Programs in Low-Income Countries: Fragile versus Non-Fragile States
Edouard Martin
and
Felix J Vardy
This paper examines the macroeconomic frameworks of IMF-supported programs with low-income countries from 2009 to 2022, focusing on how macroeconomic targets and their achievement differ between fragile and conflicted-affected states (FCS) and non-FCS. Key findings include similar program targets for FCS and non-FCS, optimism in all dimensions considered other than inflation, and no significant correlation between targets and outcomes. For variables other than inflation, country-independent targets equal to the mean or median outcomes of other programs outperform program projections as predictors of actual outcomes. This underscores the challenges in setting realistic, country and program-specific targets in IMF-supported programs with low-income countries. Finally, we discuss potential caveats, including GDP rebenchmarking, non-linear relationship between initial conditions and targets, and repeat programs. We do not study, and make no claims about, causality.
Keywords:
IMF Programs; LICs; Fragility; Tailoring; Optimism; appendix H. country classification; fragile and conflicted-affected states; histogram of program approval; growth optimism; IMF country team; FCS classification; Pb XOXG; FCS program; Inflation; Fiscal stance; Wages; Debt reduction; Stocks; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Carbon Policy and Stock Returns: Signals from Financial Markets
Martina Hengge
,
Ugo Panizza
, and
Richard Varghese
Understanding the impact of climate mitigation policies is key to designing effective carbon pricing tools. We use institutional features of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and high-frequency data on more than 2,000 publicly listed European firms over 2011-21 to study the impact of carbon policies on stock returns. After extracting the surprise component of regulatory actions, we show that events resulting in higher carbon prices lead to negative abnormal returns which increase with a firm's carbon intensity. This negative relationship is even stronger for firms in sectors which do not participate in the EU ETS suggesting that investors price in transition risk stemming from the shift towards a low-carbon economy. We conclude that policies which increase carbon prices are effective in raising the cost of capital for emission-intensive firms.
Keywords:
Carbon Emissions; Carbon Prices: Climate Change; Transition Risk; Stock Returns; carbon Policy surprise; investors price; carbon intensity; climate mitigation policy; EU ETS; Greenhouse gas emissions; Stocks; Asset prices; Climate change; Europe; Global; Emissions trading; stock return; carbon policy; EU Emissions Trading System; Climate policy
Cover IMF Working Papers
Geopolitical Risk on Stock Returns: Evidence from Inter-Korea Geopolitics
Seungho Jung
,
Jongmin Lee
, and
Seohyun Lee
We investigate how corporate stock returns respond to geopolitical risk in the case of South Korea, which has experienced large and unpredictable geopolitical swings that originate from North Korea. To do so, a monthly index of geopolitical risk from North Korea (the GPRNK index) is constructed using automated keyword searches in South Korean media. The GPRNK index, designed to capture both upside and downside risk, corroborates that geopolitical risk sharply increases with the occurrence of nuclear tests, missile launches, or military confrontations, and decreases significantly around the times of summit meetings or multilateral talks. Using firm-level data, we find that heightened geopolitical risk reduces stock returns, and that the reductions in stock returns are greater especially for large firms, firms with a higher share of domestic investors, and for firms with a higher ratio of fixed assets to total assets. These results suggest that international portfolio diversification and investment irreversibility are important channels through which geopolitical risk affects stock returns.
Keywords:
Geopolitical risk; Textual analysis; Stock returns; Inter-Korean relations.; GPRNK index; stock return; firms' stock; GPRNK trend; search keyword; growth outlook; Stocks; Economic cooperation; Stock markets; Asset prices; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Stock Returns and Inflation Redux: An Explanation from Monetary Policy in Advanced and Emerging Markets
Mr. Zhongxia Zhang
Classical theories of monetary economics predict that real stock returns are negatively correlated with inflation when monetary policy is countercyclical. Previous empirical studies mostly focus on a small group of developed countries or a few countries with hyperinflation. In this paper, I examine the stock return-inflation relation under different monetary policy regimes and conditions using an expanded dataset of 71 economies. Empirical evidence suggests that the stock return-inflation relation is partially driven by monetary policy. If a country’s monetary authority conducts a more countercyclical monetary policy, the stock return-inflation relation becomes more negative. In addition, the results differ by monetary policy framework. In exchange rate anchor countries, stock markets do not respond to monetary policy cyclicality. In inflation targeting countries, stock markets react more strongly to inflation. A key contribution of this paper is to classify inflation targeters by their behaviors, and illustrate that behavior matters in shaping market perceptions: markets react to inflation and monetary policy cyclicality when central banks are able to control inflation within their target bands. In this case markets are sensitive to inflation dynamics when inflation is above the announced target bands. Finally, when monetary policy is constrained by the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB), a structural break is introduced and real stock returns no longer respond to inflation and monetary policy cyclicality.
Keywords:
monetary policy cyclicality; stock return-inflation relation; countercyclical monetary policy; market perception; inflation targeting country; Inflation; Stocks; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Inflation targeting; Central bank policy rate; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Handle with Care: Regulatory Easing in Times of COVID-19
Mr. Fabian Valencia
,
Mr. Richard Varghese
,
Weijia Yao
, and
Juan Yepez
The policy response to the COVID-19 shock included regulatory easing across many jurisdictions to facilitate the flow of credit to the economy and mitigate a further ampli-fication of the shock through tighter financial conditions. Using an intraday event study,this paper examines how stock prices—a key driver in financial conditions—reacted to regulatory easing announcements in a sample of 18 advanced economies and 8 emerging markets. The paper finds that overall, regulatory easing announcements contributed to looser financial conditions, but effects varied across sectors and tools. Financial regulatory easing led to lower valuations for financial sector stocks, and higher valuations for non-financial sector stocks, particularly for industries that are more dependent on bank financing. Furthermore, valuations declined and financial conditions tightened following announcements related to easier bank capital regulation while equity valuation rose and financial conditions loosened after those about liquidity regulation. Effects from non-regulatory financial measures appear to be generally more muted.
Keywords:
Stock prices; policy announcements; financial conditions; capital; liquidity; COVID-19.; WP; liquidity regulation easing; regulation announcement; announcement dummy; equity price; market reaction
Cover IMF Working Papers
Drivers of Cross-Border Banking in Sub-Saharan Africa
Mr. Paul Henri Mathieu
,
Mr. Marco Pani
,
Shiyuan Chen
, and
Mr. Rodolfo Maino
Using data collected from pan-African banks’ (PABs), balance sheets and other sources (Orbis, Fitch), this study identifies some key patterns of cross-border investment in bank subsidiaries by key banking groups in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and discusses some of the determinants of this investment. Using a gravity model relating the annual value of a banking group’s investment in the net equity of its subsidiaries to a set of explanatory variables, the analysis finds that cross-border banking is in part driven by a search for yield, diversification, and expansion for strategic reasons.
Keywords:
WP; break; center; exchange rate; Cross-border banking flows; Bank leverage; Global banks; Group profitability; banking group variable; Group size; vis-à-vis intra-group; net equity; host country pair; bank subsidiary; pan-African banking groups; Exchange rates; Cross-border banking; Inflation; Stocks; Gravity models; Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global; West Africa; North Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Measurement of External Accounts
Gustavo Adler
,
Mr. Daniel Garcia-Macia
, and
Signe Krogstrup
Growing international integration in trade and finance can challenge the measurement of external accounts. This paper presents a unified conceptual framework for identifying sources of mismeasurement of foreign investment income in current account balances. The framework allows to derive a precise definition of measurement distortions and an empirical strategy for estimating their importance. As an application, we empirically estimate two specific distortions related to inflation and retained earnings on portfolio equity for a broad set of countries. We find these may explain a non-trivial share of current account imbalances and that they are particularly relevant in countries with large external investment positions. We also discuss how merchanting and profit-shifting activities could lead to measurement distortions. We suggest areas for future research and underline the need to strengthen data collection efforts.
Keywords:
WP; Current Account; Measurement; External Imbalances; Global Imbalances.; portfolio equity; inflation distortion; liabilities position; retained earnings distortion; inflation income; equity instrument; distortion distortion; inflation income in country c; inflation expectation; current account flow; current account statistics; current account measure; Income; Wages; Stocks; Inflation; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Present Value of Corporate Profits: A Forecasters' Survey Perspective
Michal Andrle
This paper presents and discusses the estimates of the present value of corporate profits in the United States from 1984 to 2018. To value the expected income stream, it uses the long-range forecasts of professional forecasters for pre-tax corporate earnings and long-term Treasury note yields, sourced from the Blue Chip Economic Indicators survey. The appraised value of corporate earnings can point in real time at periods where market prices are deviating from valuations implied by expected earnings and interest rates. Market participants' forecasts seem to interpret most of the earnings fluctuations as permanent, underestimating the cyclical fluctuations The over-reaction to transitory shocks and changes in long-term outlook leads to swings in the valuation, in line with swings in the observed market prices.
Keywords:
WP; earnings; risk premium; interest rate; present value; asset prices; corporate earnings; growth expectation; equity risk premium; profit growth; value investor; rate of return; earnings outlook; period-by-period earnings; present-value computation; Wages; Return on investment; Stocks; Long term interest rates
Cover IMF Working Papers
Media Sentiment and International Asset Prices
Samuel P. Fraiberger
,
Dongyeol Lee
,
Mr. Damien Puy
, and
Mr. Romain Ranciere
We assess the impact of media sentiment on international equity prices using more than 4.5 million Reuters articles published across the globe between 1991 and 2015. News sentiment robustly predicts daily returns in both advanced and emerging markets, even after controlling for known determinants of stock prices. But not all news-sentiment is alike. A local (country-specific) increase in news optimism (pessimism) predicts a small and transitory increase (decrease) in local returns. By contrast, changes in global news sentiment have a larger impact on equity returns around the world, which does not reverse in the short run. We also find evidence that news sentiment affects mainly foreign – rather than local – investors: although local news optimism attracts international equity flows for a few days, global news optimism generates a permanent foreign equity inflow. Our results confirm the value of media content in capturing investor sentiment.
Keywords:
WP; equity fund; Asset Pricing; Capital Flows; Behavioral Finance; Investor Sentiment; News Media; Natural Language Processing; sentiment shock; sentiment index; state dependence; D. News sentiment; multi-country news; equity return; equity price; Stocks; Asset prices; Stock markets; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Oil Prices and GCC Stock Markets: New Evidence from Smooth Transition Models
Nidhaleddine Ben Cheikh
,
Samy Ben Naceur
,
Mr. Oussama Kanaan
, and
Christophe Rault
Our paper examines the effect of oil price changes on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stock markets using nonlinear smooth transition regression (STR) models. Contrary to conventional wisdom, our empirical results reveal that GCC stock markets do not have similar sensitivities to oil price changes. We document the presence of stock market returns’ asymmetric reactions in some GCC countries, but not for others. In Kuwait’s case, negative oil price changes exert larger impacts on stock returns than positive oil price changes. When considering the asymmetry with respect to the magnitude of oil price variation, we find that Oman’s and Qatar’s stock markets are more sensitive to large oil price changes than to small ones. Our results highlight the importance of economic stabilization and reform policies that can potentially reduce the sensitivity of stock returns to oil price changes, especially with regard to the existence of asymmetric behavior.
Keywords:
WP; oil price change; GCC country; correlation coefficient; GCC stock markets; oil prices; smooth transition regression models; GCC stock price volatility; hedging strategy; Stock markets; Asset prices; Oil; Stocks; Global