This study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the stock markets of sixteen countries. Pooled OLS regression, conventional t-test and Mann-Whitney test are used to estimate the results of the study. We construct a weekly panel data of COVID-19 new cases and stock returns. Pooled OLS estimation result shows that the growth rate of weekly new cases of COVID-19 negatively predicts the return in stock market. Next, the returns on leading stock indices of these countries during the COVID-19 outbreak period are compared with returns during the non-COVID period. We use a t-test and Mann-Whitney test to compare the returns. The results reveal that investors in these countries do not react to the media news of COVID-19 at the early stage of the pandemic. However, once the human-to-human transmissibility had been confirmed, all of the stock market indices negatively reacted to the news in the short- and long-event window. Interestingly, we noticed that the Shanghai Composite Index, which was severely affected during the short-event window, bounced back during the long-event window. This indicates that the Chinese government’s drastic measures to contain the spread of the pandemic regained the confidence of investors in the Shanghai Stock Market.

The study examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity on the firm market value, in particular, market capitalization of tour operators listed on Chinese stock markets. This study employs panel data analysis methods to examine endogeneity concerns in observational data. The balanced panel data includes a total of 1,296 observations with 27 cross-sections of tour operators listed on Chinese stock markets and with 48 time-specific periods from March 2006 to December 2017. The results indicate that CSR activity has a negative impact on the market value of the firm for the concurrent period, but from one-period time lag and afterwards CSR activity has a strong positive impact on the market value and sustains its positive impact on the market value even for a two-period time lag. The findings suggest that the economic effect of CSR activity on the firm market value tends to take some degree of lagged effects to be fully showcased in the market capitalization of tour operators and travel companies listed on Chinese stock markets. The findings suggest that, though CSR activity may carry some financial risk for an immediate short-term, tour operators must put a lot of time and effort into making CSR actions effective.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of corporate governance index on the cost of equity in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. This study collects data from 975 observations during the period 2012 to 2018 to test the hypotheses using multiple linear regression model for the panel data. In this research, the independent variable of corporate governance index comprises of 27 specific corporate governance attributes. The results of hypothesis testing showed that corporate governance has a negative and significant effect on the rate of capital cost. In other words, the quality of corporate governance can lower the rate of capital cost. This result suggests that, by using a powerful corporate governance system and by declining the information asymmetry (increasing transparency) and agency conflict, we would be able to enhance the quality of financial reports. It would strengthen the capital market, attract financial suppliers and investors, and absorb the required financial resources of the firm by a lower rate. The findings of the study suggest that companies are able to reduce the cost of equity by establishing strong corporate governance. This conclusion suggests the importance and effectiveness of corporate governance in the cost of equity.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the quality of the audit and the level of stock return co-movement in the context of the Vietnamese emerging market. The empirical study is designed based on the quatitative method and deductive approach. The panel datasetincludes 256listed firmsfrom different industries,with 1115 firm-year observations on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange for the period from 2014 to 2018. In the research, we built the econometric regression model, using stock return synchronicity and audit quality as the dependent and independent variable, respectively. Some control variables are also added to the econometric regression models as they are well-documented in prior research to have an effect on stock price synchronicity. To improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients, besidetheOrdinary Least Squares, we employ theRandom Effects Modeland theFixed Effects Model for better statistical analysis of panel data set. The resultsshow that the quality of the audit is positively correlated to stock price synchronicity. This finding suggests that stock returns of companies with higher quality of the audit are more synchronous with the market. Results for other control variables also support our reasoning for the main findings.

The research investigates the impact of the lockdown period caused by the COVID-19 to the stock market of India. The study examines the extent of the influence of the lockdown on the Indian stock market and whether the market reaction would be the same in pre- and post-lockdown period caused by COVID-19. Market Model Event study methodology is used. A sample of 31 companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) are selected at random for the purpose of the study. The sample period taken for the study is 35 days (24 February-17 April, 2020). An event window of 35 days was taken with 20 days prior to the event and 15 days during the event. The event (t1) being the official announcement of the lockdown. The results indicate that the market reacted positively with significantly positive Average Abnormal Returns during the present lockdown period, and investors anticipated the lockdown and reacted positively, whereas in the pre-lockdown period investors panicked and it was reflected in negative AAR. The study finds evidence of a positive AR around the present lockdown period and confirms that lockdown had a positive impact on the stock market performance of stocks till the situation improves in the Indian context.

Multi-criteria stock selection is a critical issue for effective investment since the improper stock investment might cause many problems affecting investors negatively. Investors need a range of financial indicators while they are choosing the optimal set of stocks to invest. This study aims to rank the stock of agriculture companies indexed on the Vietnam Stock Exchange Market. The data of 13 agriculture companies during the 2016-2019 periods was analyzed by analytical hierarchy process (AHP) integrated with grey relational analysis (GRA), multiobjective optimization ratio analysis (MOORA), and technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). The AHP method is employed to determine the weights of the proposed financial ratios, and GRA, TOPSIS, and MOORA approaches are used to obtain final ranking. The results indicated that HSL is the top stock with the highest rank and GRA, MOORA, and TOPSIS rankings have strong correlation values between 0.78-1. The findings suggest that the integrated model could be implemented effectively to specific analysis of industries such as oil and gas, textiles, food, and electronics in future research. Further, other techniques like COPRAS, KEMIRA, and EDAS could be employed to evaluate the financial performance of other companies to solve investment problems.

This study examines the effect of fintech on retail banks stock return listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period of 2016-2018 as today’s new technology lead to the emergence of fintech companies playing the same role as retail banks in the financial industry. This study is conducted quantitatively using monthly data from January 2016 to October 2018 and uses fintech as independent variable, proxied by fintech funding frequency and fintech funding value. Data transformation is conducted due to data volatility. The data of fintech funding, both frequency and value, is transformed into standardized fintech funding and growth of fintech funding. The data is obtained from Crunchbase, while the data of stock returns is obtained from Investing. This study further analyzes the data using Fama French Three-Factor Model and panel data regression. We found that fintech has no significant effect on retail banks’ stock returns listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period of 2016-2018. The findings of the study provide some useful insights in understanding fintech companies’ current position to retail banks in Indonesia. This study also suggests banking institutions, fintech companies, policy-makers, and others to take advantageous steps in building inclusive financial sectors.

The paper examines the impact of information about cash flow from operating activities of firms listed on Vietnam’s stock market to the decision making of individual investors. Data were collected from interviews with 160 individual investors about their investment decisions based on information on profit growth and cash flow growth from operating activities. T-test was conducted to research on Vietnam’s stock market - a market considered as information that is not really public, transparent and ineffective. The research results show that: (1) investors do not care about cash flow from operating activities when making investment decisions if the company’s profits grow positively, (2) information about cash flow from operating activities only affects the decisions of individual investors once profit growth is negative, and (3) conflicting information between profit growth and cash flow growth from business activities significantly affects the confidence and comfort of investors in Vietnam’s stock market when they make investment decisions. Then, the study points out the mistake of investors when making investment decisions, and offers recommendations to investors when making investment decisions, not only concerned with profit growth, but also paying special attention to cash flow growth, especially cash flow from the company’s business operations.

The research paper examines the influence of elections on the stock market. The study analyses whether the market reaction would be the same when a party wins and comes to power for the second consecutive time. The study employs Market Model Event study methodology. The sample period taken for the study is 2014 to 2019. A sample of 31 companies listed in Bombay Stock Exchange is selected at random for the purpose of the study. For the elections held in 2014, an event window of 82 days was taken with 39 days prior to the event and 42 days post event. The event (t0) being the declaration of the election results. For the elections held in 2019 an event window of 83 days was taken with 41 days prior to the event and 41 days post event. The results indicate that the market reacts positively with significantly positive Average Abnormal Returns. The findings of the study reveal that the impact on the market is not the same between any two elections even when the same party comes to power for the second time. The semi-strong form of efficient market hypothesis holds true in the context of emerging markets like India.

The study investigates the effect of the widened daily stock price limits on the usefulness of accounting information in Korea: 1) whether investors place a higher importance on audit quality, an indicator of the reliability of accounting information, and 2) whether there are differences in the relationships between audit quality and stock-price earning-rates two years before and after June 15, 2016. This study employs samples of two years (2013 to 2015) before the widening and two years after the widening (2016 to 2017). The samples are limited to the companies listed on the Korea Stock Exchange, accounting settled in December, collected from Fn-Guide and TS-2000 of the Korea Listed Companies Association. The results show that the positive association between audit quality and stock return was increased during the later period, compared to the preceding period. This tendency was more evident in companies with higher debt ratios and companies with lower levels of income smoothing, which is considered to have higher risks. The findings suggest that it is the first study evaluating the effect of widening daily stock price limits, made on June 15, 2015, on the usefulness of audit quality information by examining the relevance between audit quality and stock return.

The objectives of this study are threefold: 1) to identify the concepts of earnings, stock return and liquidity risks on public shareholding industrial companies listed in the Amman Stock Exchange, 2) to investigate the relationship between earnings, stock return, strength and direction of this relationship, and 3) to find out the effect of liquidity risks at stock return and the effect of liquidity risks on the relationship between earnings and stock return on Jordanian public shareholding industrial companies. To achieve the objectives, an analytical descriptive approach was used. As the data on the public shareholding industrial companies listed in the Amman Stock Exchange were accredited by 52 companies for the period between 2014-2019, data validation tests and their suitability for analysis were considered. A linear regression test was used to test the study hypotheses on the statistical analysis program. The results show that there is a positive and significant correlation at significance level between the earnings and stock return. The results of the study also showed that there is a statistically significant negative effect at significance level of liquidity risk on stock return. In addition, it was demonstrated that liquidity risks have significant negative effects on the relationship between earnings and stock returns.

The study aims to investigate a close relation between macro and non-macro variables on stock performance of tourism companies in Korea. The sample used in this study includes monthly data from January 2001 to December 2018. The stock price index of the tourism companies as a dependent variable are obtained from Sejoong, HanaTour, and RedcapTour as three leading Korean tourism companies that have been listed on the Korea Stock Exchange. This study assesses the tourism stock performance using the quantile regression approach. This study also investigates whether global crisis events as the Iraq War and the global financial crisis as non-macro variables have a significant effect on the stock performance of tourism companies in Korea. The results show that the oil prices, exchange rate and industrial production have negative coefficients on stock prices of tourism companies, while the effects of tourist expenditure and consumer price index are positive and significant. We estimate the result of quantile regression that non-macro determinants have statistically a significant and negative effect on tourism stock performance because the global crisis could threaten traveler’s safety and economy. Overall, empirical results suggest that the effects of macro and non-macro variables are statistically asymmetric and highly related to tourism stock performance.

The study aims to provide some plausible explanation for why Vietnamese listed companies only stop at the level of truthful presentation of information related to accounting data through the opinion of independent auditors. The information is only at the level of compliance with the requirements of Circular 155/2015/TT-BTC in form, but in essence is sketchy. What factors affect the level of voluntary disclosure of listed companies in Vietnam? In order to identify the factors affecting voluntary information disclosure on annual reports of listed companies, the study collected data on annual reports of 122 companies listed on the stock market in Ho Chi Minh City in the period 2015-2018 and uses regression analysis methods. The research presents 8 factors affecting the level of voluntary information disclosure including: Firm size, Listed time, Profitability, Solvency, Separation of board of directors and executive director, Board size, Organizational ownership and Foreign ownership. Next, the study conducted descriptive statistical analysis correlation coefficient analysis to examine the correlation and relevance of independent variables measured by the scale ratio, testing multiple linear regression model. The results of the study show that factors listed time, profitability and organizational ownership affecting voluntary information disclosure on annual reports of listed companies in Vietnam.

The research aims to investigate the determinants of the financial performance of 1343 Vietnamese companies categorized into six different industries listed on the Vietnamese Stock Exchange over a four-year period from 2014 to 2017 using STATA software. Those determinants include firm size, liquidity, solvency, financial leverage, and financial adequacy while the financial performance is evaluated by three different ratios: return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and return on sales (ROS). The research results from these companies during the given period indicate that: (1) Firm size has a positive impact on both ROA and ROS, especially ROA but it has the opposite effect on ROE, (2) Adequacy ratio impacts positively on ROA and ROS but negatively on ROE, (3) Financial leverage considerably negative influences on ROE and ROS but positively impacts on ROA, (4) Liquidity has a positive effect on both ROA and ROE but a negative one on ROS and (5) Solvency has a positive impact on ROA and ROS but the negative impact on ROE. Furthermore, agriculture accounted for the highest percentage of profitability at the beginning, which was replaced by service for ROA but manufacture for ROE from 2016 to 2017 as opposed to the least in transportation.

The paper examines the dynamic relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity on the economic growth of the Philippines from 1995 to 2018 applying the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration, together with Granger causality test based on vector error correction model (VECM). The ARDL model indicated a long-run relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity on GDP growth. When the GDP per capita is the dependent variable there is weak cointegration. Also, the Johansen cointegration test confirmed the existence of long-run relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity both on GDP growth and GDP per capita. The VECM concludes a long-run causality running from domestic credit and stock market liquidity to GDP growth. At levels, domestic credit has significant short-run causal relationship with GDP growth. As for stock market liquidity at first lag, has significant short-run causal relationship with GDP growth. With regards to VECM for GDP per capita, domestic credit and stock market liquidity indicates no significant dynamic adjustment to a new equilibrium if a disturbance occurs in the whole system. At levels, the results indicated the presence of short-run causality from stock market liquidity and GDP per capita. The CUSUMSQ plot complements the findings of the CUSUM plot that the estimated models for GDP growth and GDP per capita were stable.

Purpose: This research aims to investigate the impact of corporate integrity on stock price crash risk. Research design, data, and methodology: Taking 1419 firms listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China as a sample, this paper empirically analyzed the relationship between corporate integrity and stock price crash risk. The main integrity data was hand-collected from Shenzhen Stock Exchange Website. Other financial data was collected from CSMAR Database. Results: Findings show that corporate integrity can significantly decrease stock price crash risk. After changing the selection of samples, model estimation methods and the proxy variable of stock price crash risk, the conclusion is still valid. Further research shows that the relationship between corporate integrity and stock price crash risk is only found in firms with weak internal control and firms in poor legal system areas. Conclusions: Results of the study suggest that corporate integrity has a significant influence on behaviors of managers. Business ethics reduces the likelihood of managers to overstate financial performance and hide bad news, which leads to the low likelihood of future stock price crashes. Meanwhile, corporate integrity can supplement internal control and legal system in decreasing stock price crash risks.

Despite the fact that the implementation of 5% rule is widely recognized to enhance the transparency of capital market and fairness of corporate governance market, a few evidences present information effect of 5% rule. Using 7,088 non-financial firm-year observations listed on the Korea Stock Exchange from 2006 to 2012, we analyze the relation between trading volume and 5% rule disclosure. The results show that the daily and abnormal trading volume is increased when 5% rule disclosure is released. Moreover, the trading volume is significantly increased during cooling period. Specifically, trading volume is significantly greater when one day before cooling period or the expiration day of cooling period. We also find the information effect of firms with stable ownership structure before 5% rule disclosure is relatively smaller than the firms with unstable ownership structure with unstable ownership structure. These results imply that capital market participants use the information from 5% rule disclosure and reflect in their real economic decision.

The research aims to study the relationship between export performance and stock return of Vietnamese fishery companies. To conduct this study, quarterly data was collected for period from 2010-2018 of 13 fishery companies listing in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) and Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX). The export performance was measured by export intensity, export growth and export market coverage. In addition, interest rate, exchange rate, GDP, firm size, profitability, and financial leverage were considered as the control variables in the research model. Panel data analysis with Generalized Least Squares model was employed to estimate the predictive regression. The findings indicated that export intensity and export growth have a significant and positive relationship with stock returns. However, export market coverage has not a significant relationship with stock return at the 0.05 level. Profitability, financial leverage, and exchange rate have a positive relationship, while interest rate and GDP have no relation to stock return at the 0.05 significance level. The findings imply that investors should consider the export intensity instead of export growth and export market coverage as selecting stock of fishery exports firms to invest; managers should increase export intensity to increase company’s stock price or firm market value.

The study investigates the impact of accrual anomaly on stock return ratio of listed firms in Vietnam. Data were collected from listed firms for the period from 2008 to 2018. To learn about the causes of accrual anomaly in returns and future rate of returns on the Vietnamese stock market, this research is based on accrual analysis of Richardson, Sloan, Soliman, and Tuna (2006) on growth and effective components. We employ GLS regression model for examining the impact of accrual anomaly on stock return ratio and T-test for checking the difference between the lowest and the highest portfolio. The results show that accounting distortion is the main factor impacting the stock return, not growth determinant. Both two determinants of accounting distortion and growth contribute the explanation of the impact of accrual anomaly on profit and future stock return ratio. Experimental evidence confirms an abnormal existence of accrual in the  Vietnam stock market. Aggregate accrual is negatively correlated with future operating profit and future stock return. However, after considering the factors contributing to the impact of future profitability and return on stock returns, the study results show that accounting distortion can account for low sustainability of income that is not growth.

The study aims to examine the impact of productivity in addition to the policy of increasing the foreign investors’ ownership rate on the performance of businesses which were listed on Vietnam's stock exchange market from 2010 to 2017. With the database of 3.961 observations, the study employs a statistical method – multiple regression to estimate the relationship between labor productivity, foreign ownership as well as other firm-level characteristics and firm performance. Research findings show that increasing labor productivity and increasing foreign ownership rates help increase firm performance. In addition, except for financial leverage, variables such as liquidity and firm size have positive effects on firm performance measured by Tobin’s Q. These findings have theoretical contributions and practical implications for managers, investors and government in Vietnam. Managers should pay attention to improving labor productivity through employing incentive mechanisms, building a good working environment, investing in technology, etc. in order to enhance the firm performance. Investors could utilize the labor productivity and foreign ownership indicators to select stocks of good companies for investment. For Vietnamese government, relaxing the limit of foreign ownership and accelerating the divesting of State capital in Stateowned enterprises could help increase the investment scale of foreign investors and resulting in positive effects on the firm performance.