This study attempts to set out in detail some of the factors and influeuces affecting portfolio decisions. In particular it attempts to outline the factors affecting portfolio selection decisions in an investment management organisation. Influences on share selection such as the need for diversification in portfolios, the desire to buy marketable stocks and the use of sector selection - a technique for selecting shares by their industry characteristics - as well as a variety of institutional factors are discussed at some length. Specific factors involved in investment analysis, such as intrinsic value analysis, and methods of portfolio evaluations are also considered. With this basis it is then possible to investigate more fully the value and usefulness of one of the managers decision rules. The technique investigated - sector selection - was on the one hand, felt by the investment managers to be a central and important part of their portfolio construction techniques contributing significantly to the performance of their portfolios, whilst on the other hand it was believed by the author, on the basis of preliminary observations, to be of rather less consequence. To resolve this conflict a multi-stage analysis (discussed below) was devised to provide empirical evidence as to the theoretical validity and practical usefulness of the technique.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985.

Extensive empirical evidence shows that passively managed index-tracking mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) outperform actively managed portfolios. On the other hand, there are abundant findings that stocks admitted to an index outperform those deleted from the index. This study tests an issue that has been largely ignored in academic studies but is highly related to the above two seemingly disparate areas of researches. The paper examines the long-term performance of non-index individual stocks and stock portfolios relative to the index. The study proposes that the inclusion and maintenance criteria for index component stocks are long-term performance indicators. Therefore, an index can be regarded as a passively managed and highly diversified portfolio of expected outperformers. Using a complete set of H-shares listed on HKEx for the period 2001 to 2017, the study finds that 44.25% (55.75%) of individual stocks have positive alphas (negative alphas) relative to the index. The average alpha for the family of all non-index stock is negative but statistically insignificant, i.e., 77 positive alphas and 97 negative alphas. Most alphas are statistically insignificant, but only 5 are positive, and 2 are negative at 5% significance level. From the risk and return perspective, the index dominates two-third of the non-index H-shares. Regression analyses show that H-index outperforms non-index H-shares in general and the market capitalization and turnover ratio play an important role in determining the long-term performance of H-shares, which are the major factors for the admission and maintenance criteria of H-index. The findings strongly support our conjecture that the index admission and maintenance criteria are the quality assurance of individual constituent stocks of an index. The paper provides incremental evidence on the widely documented result that index trackers outperform actively managed portfolios. Nevertheless, the study extends the recent literature on the long-term performance of stocks that are admitted to (or excluded from) an index. The findings of the study have significant implications for securities markets participants, including index providers and ETF issuers

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.