Following the model developed by Easley, Kiefer, O¡¦Hara and Paperman (1996), I estimated the probability of informed trading (PI) in the TSEC. The result in my study is that the probability of informed trading is highly related with the trading volume of each stock. More active stocks will have lower probability of informed trading, so investors trading with active stocks will face less information asymmetry. Feather more, my research followed the study of Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O¡¦Hara (2002), who used the Fama-French asset pricing model(1992) discussing the relationship among stock return, portfolioed market risk, size and BE/ME ratio. The result in my study is that the stock return in TSEC is affected by portfolioed market risk and size, but PI and BE/ME ratio have no effect to stock return. The result is different from the study of Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O¡¦Hara (2002). The reason could be that most investors in TSEC are individuals who lack the awareness about information asymmetry.

During the last decade, investments into the Swedish mutual fund market have increased substantially. The increased popularity of actively managed Swedish equity funds among households and investment companies, correspondingly, funds need to deliver substantial results, raised the importance to evaluate these funds’ performance. This thesis adds to the scarce empirical literature on Swedish equity mutual fund performance. Employing the Fama-French three factor model, it analyzes whether actively managed Swedish equity mu- tual funds outperform the Fama-French benchmarks net- and gross of management fees. The study uses time-series data and constructs equally-weighted portfolios of the 42 Swe- dish based actively managed equity mutual funds investing in Sweden for the period 2003- 2013. The portfolios’ excess returns are calculated by estimating the Fama-French three factor model by means of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis. The empirical results show that actively managed equity mutual funds over performed the Fama-French three factor benchmarks by an average annualized net- and gross excess return of 3.60 and 4.67 percent respectively. Sorting out the funds by the performance into deciles, the find- ings indicate that management fees influence the performance of the equity mutual funds in the sample of our study. The conclusion is made such that there is an indication that Swedish equity funds’ managers are able to add value above passive investing.

Over the past years, the total assets under management among hedge funds and equity mutual fundshave increased significantly. The question from an investor point of view iswhich investment vehicle can provide the greatest return adjusted for risk. The purpose of this study involves an analysis on the historical net asset values todetermine and evaluate what one can except from actively managed hedge andequity mutual funds. It supports the determination of the most profitable asset, adjusted for risk, as part of a diversified portfolio. The performance is measured net of fees and costs with the inclusion of potential performance fees individual hedge funds may apply. Hedge funds practice different investment approaches depending on what strategy is applied and hence, return levels can vary dramatically. The study is designed to answer questions by comparing net returns and risk-adjusted returns for respective investments and the different hedge fund strategies. With a deductive research approach, the analysis is conducted by applying existing models and theories as the Fama-French three-factor model through time-series regressions measuring excess returns (alpha), risk-adjusted performance measures as Sharpe ratio, M-squared and the Sortino ratio. The results show that hedge funds outperform equity mutual funds in all examined aspects and produce positive monthly net alphas,on average. Equity mutual funds are unable to provide investors with positive excess returns and subsequently fail the purpose of an actively managed fund by providing returns lower than the return of the market. The results are increasingly strengthened with both time-series regressions and performance measures showing homogenous results and reaching the equal conclusions. From the conclusions that hedge funds provide the most profitable investment compared to equity mutual funds, the hedge fund strategy CTA/managed futures strategies perform best in both net and risk-adjusted terms.

2008 is a special year for the global financial market. The global financial tsunami ignited from the U.S sub-prime mortgage crisis has caused Wall Street financial giants to collapse. The credit crunch in turn caused a contraction in the real economy and the world paid a heavy price for this financial tsunami. Charles Dickens quote¡G "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ". Compared to European and the United States large-scale banks, China's banks are less opened and have relatively small exposure to derivative financial products. Consequently, these barriers have led them to limit their losses and write-downs from the sub-prime mortgage crisis. This thesis studies the major China-based banks¡¦ profitability by comparing these banks¡¦ financial and operational structures, and correlations to several economic factors. At the same time, Fama-French three-factor model was used to verify the efficiency of the China¡¦s stock market. The conclusions of this study are presented as follows¡G(a) Although these Chinese banks do have economies of scale, but the relationship between scale and profitability is not proportional. (b) Chinese banks are less affected by the financial crisis as a result of the high level of protection and control of the Chinese government, coupled with the fact that most of the Chinese banks¡¦ core operations are net interest income (c) lending activity¡B net interest margin¡B and asset quality are the key drivers for Chinese banks, and these three factors are mostly negatively correlated to the economic condition. (d) Based on the regression result of the Fama-French three factors model and the result of the T test, the relation of the excess return of the Chinese banks¡¦ Shanghai-listed A-shares to both the market value and the ratio of book to market value is significant while that of the Chinese banks¡¦ Hong Kong-listed H-shares is insignificant.

Ο αντικειμενικός σκοπός της συγκεκριμένης εργασίας είναι να διερευνηθεί κατά πόσο και αν ισχύει η θεωρία της αποτελεσματικότητας των αγορών που πρωτοεισήχθη από τους Fama και French σε εβδομαδιαία δεδομένα που προέρχονται από το Χρηματιστήριο Αξιών της Μ. Βρετανίας για την περίοδο 1/1/2000 μέχρι 1/1/2010. / The investigation of the efficient market hypothesis with daily U.K. data, testing period from 1/1/2000 to 1/1/2010.

I denna uppsats kommer vi att undersöka om det förekom överreaktioner på Stockholmsbörsen mellan åren 2002 och 2016. Överreaktioner undersöks genom att bilda vinnar- och förlorarportföljer baserat på tidigare månatliga avvikelseavkastningar. Vi ställer en hypotes om att förlorarportföljer kommer att prestera bättre än vinnarportföljer efter portföljformering. Portföljerna utvärderas under ett-, två- och treårsperioder för att undersöka om det förekommer reversals som en investerare skulle kunna utnyttja genom contrarianstrategin. Vår uppsats identifierar kortsiktiga reversals direkt efter portföljformering, men på lång sikt tenderar investerare att erhålla vinst genom att följa en positiv marknadstrenden. Regressionsanalyser med CAPM och Fama-French trefaktormodell genomförs för att få en bättre förståelse av orsakerna som ligger bakom avkastningar i vinnar- och förlorarportföljer. Vi föreslår att reversals inte skapar möjligheter för investerare att nå positivt statistiskt signifikant alfa på Stockholmsbörsen. Möjliga vinster genom contrarianstrategin drivs av faktorer som företagsstorlek och –värde snarare än att investerare överreagerar på marknaden. / In this study we will examine if overreactions occurred on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during period 2002-2016. Winner- and loser portfolios were formed based on past monthly returns to see if investors overreact and by doing that cause reversal effects later on. Our study discovers short-term reversals, but in the long run investors benefit by following the overall trend on the stock market. Expanding our study to the Fama-French three-factor model we suggest that reversals in stock prices does not enable investors to gain statistically significant positive alphas on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. On the contrary, returns are driven by the factors of firm size and -value rather than behavioral biases of investors.

Denna studie undersöker huruvida nyemissioners bakomliggande motiv påverkar hur det emitterande företaget värderas efter tillkännagivandet. Fenomenet undersöks på den svenska marknaden, då majoriteten av tidigare forskning bedrivits på utländska handelsplatser. Effekten av olika motiv analyseras för ett urval bestående av 203 observationer under en 14-årsperiod, mellan år 2005-2018, där samtliga nyemissioner genomförts på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. Studien omfattar både riktade och företrädesmissioner. Avvikande avkastning beräknas på kort och lång sikt i samband med nyemissionernas tillkännagivande med hjälp av tre olika metoder (CAR, BHAR samt FF3M). Således mäts både den kortsiktiga annonseringseffekten såväl som företagets långsiktiga prestation mot index (OMXSPIoch SIXRX). Vidare används även multipel regressionsanalys för att undersöka om samband går att återfinna mellan motiven och avvikande avkastning.  Studien finner signifikanta bevis för att underprestation i regel följer nyemissioners tillkännagivande. Negativt avvikande avkastning återfinns i de fall motivet uppges vara antingen rekapitalisation eller generella ändamål. Däremot förekommer ett positivt samband mellan avvikande avkastning och motivet investeringar, vilket indikerar på att dessa företag snarare överpresterar marknaden. Således argumenterar studien för att nyemissioners motiv har betydelse för hur företaget presterar, både på kort och lång sikt, vilket indirekt påverkar företagets värdering. / The purpose of this thesis was to examine if the stated motive for a seasoned equity offering (SEO) affects company valuation, post-SEO. This was accomplished by calculating abnormal returns for a sample containing 203 SEOs over a 14 year period between 2005 and 2018. All companies being listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm during the time of their respective equity offering. By providing three different measurements for abnormal return (CAR, BHAR, and FF3M) as well as performing multiple regression analysis, the study finds significant evidence for general underperformance following the SEO. This is true for when the motive is stated as recapitalization or general corporate-related purposes. When the motive is stated as investment, the study finds significant evidence for post-SEO overperformance.

The All-Electric Vehicle (AEV) industry development has intensified and is connected to governmentefforts to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and encourage people to buy electric vehicles. This hasled to all the lights turning on newly established all-electric vehicle makers and some older players. Thegrowth of these companies is depicted in their market capitalization, which has seen an unprecedentedrun. However, one can notice a knowledge gap in the analysis of factors affecting such companies'expected rate of return. This research focuses on analyzing the factors from three of the most knownasset pricing models - CAPM, Fama-French 3 Factor, and Fama-French 5 Factor models. It shows whichof these factors are significant in estimating the expected return rate for nine chosen companies and theimpact of each considerable factor on the return rate.Additionally, we calculate the expected return rate using the beforementioned models to verify whetherthere is an uptrend or not in the electric vehicle market. The current research is limited to companieslisted on the US stock market, with only all-electric vehicle production lines. We make an introductionto the AEV theoretical aspects and related market structure. We also present theoretical concepts behindthe expected rate of return perception.The analysis showed that the market risk premium impacts 100% of the companies. The SMB factorinfluences 55% of the companies while the HML factor only 11%. Finally, RMW affects 66% of thechosen dataset and CMA 77%. For all companies, there is a positive expected return rate. Looking atthe significant coefficients for each model, the results are the following: we can observe that for CAPMand all the companies, 100% of the coefficients are positive. For FF3FM, 93% of the significant factorsare positive, while only 7% are negative. Finally, for FF5FM, out of the 28 significant factors, 65% ofthe coefficients are positive, and 35% are negative.

Det finns ett ökat fokus på hållbarhet på grund av miljömässiga utmaningar vi som global gemenskap ställs inför, såsom klimatuppvärmning. Det har dock funnits en brist på ekonomiska incitament att åtgärda detta. Nu finns det studier som påvisar marknadsfördelar för företag som är mer miljömedvetna - och de som yrkar på motsatsen. Uppsatsen ämnar att kvantitativt studera om det finns en förändring i totala aktieavkastningen när företag i OMXS30 får högre hållbarhetsbetyg inriktade på miljö. Denna uppsats använder sig av Refinitivs Environmental Pillar (EP) betyg. Sambandet mellan avkastning och EP-betyg undersöks med hjälp av regressionsmodeller baserade på Fama-French trefaktormodell, där EP-betyg lagts till som ytterligare en faktor. Regressioner genomförs för OMXS30 företagen. Det sammanställda resultatet är ej statistiskt signifikant, men tyder på att det finns ett negativt samband mellan EP-betyg och aktieavkastning. / There is an increased focus on sustainability due to the environmental challenges that we as a global community are facing, such as global warming. There has however been a lack of economic incentive to do this. There are now studies that demonstrate market advantages for companies that are more environmentally conscious - and those that implore the opposite. This essay aims to quantitatively study if there is a change in total stock return when companies in the OMXS30 score higher in sustainability ratings focused on the environment. The essay uses Refinitiv’s Environmental Pillar (EP) scores. The relationship between return and EP-score is examined with the help of regression models based on the Fama-French three factor model, where EP scores are added as an additional factor. Regressions are performed for OMXS30 companies. The compiled results are not statistically significant; however, they suggest a negative relationship between EP scores and stock returns.

Previous scholars have viewed expenditures on ESG (environmental, social, governance) in two distinct ways. In one way, it has been viewed as wasteful if it does not directly contribute to the business. The other perspective being that by addressing ESG-issues, one can improve businesses by improving society. In recent times, ESG has become an increasingly common topic due to the increased awareness and debates regarding the environment and sustainability. The increased attention toward ESG issues has resulted in increased ESG reporting by firms. As a result, shareholders and stakeholders can address more of their concerns by knowing how ESG-friendly a firm is. With the increased attention given to ESG in recent years, its actual effects on a firm becomes increasingly interesting. The relationship between ESG and firm performance and the relationship between ESG and stock return has been studied by several researchers over the years. The different studies have come to different conclusions regarding these relationships and the relationships are still inconsistent. In this paper, the relationship between ESG-scores and firm performance, as well as ESG-scores and stock returns in Swedish large-cap firms is examined. This study aims to investigate the relationship between ESG-scores and firm performance and the relationship between ESG-scores and stock returns. Furthermore, the study measures firm performance by measuring total asset turnover, net profit margin, and operating profit margin. Stock returns are measured with the use of historical yearly stock returns. The relationships are investigated with regression analysis. This study has a quantitative approach, where secondary data between the years 2016-2020 has been extracted from the database Refinitiv Eikon. The study finds that the relationship between ESG-scores and total asset turnover is negative, meaning that increased ESG-scores result in less efficient use of assets. The relationship between ESG-score and net profit margin is insignificant, and no conclusion can be drawn from that relationship. The relationship between ESG-scores and operating profit margin is positive, meaning that customers are willing to pay more for a firm's sustainable practices. The relationship between ESG-scores and stock returns is insignificantly negative; thus, we cannot draw any conclusions regarding the relationship, but it could indicate that ESG-scores are accounted for in the stock price.