Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / This study examined stock market reaction to annual earnings announcements using the most recent data from the Nairobi Securities Exchange (Kenya) and JSE Securities exchange (South Africa). The period of study is 1 January 2005, to 31 December, 2011. Using the event study methodology, the magnitude of market reaction to the earnings announcements for a sample of 261 listed firms on NSE and JSE is tested. Abnormal returns (ARs) were computed for each firm and tested how announcements impact a firms’ share price. The results show positive and significant returns on the announcement month for JSE, whereas the returns for NSE are negative and significant on the second month after announcement. In our study, JSE and NSE observed mean CAR of (+1.64%) and (-1.8606) respectively, suggesting that earnings contain important information for the market. We find that there is no post earnings announcement drift observed over the next six months after the announcement. The results are consistent with the efficient market hypothesis, thus suggesting that the Johannesburg securities exchange and Nairobi securities exchange are informationally efficient to earnings announcements by the sample of listed firms. Furthermore, our results show NSE firms performed better than JSE firms during the economic boom and meltdown, whereas JSE firms observed a good performance during the economic recession compared to NSE firms.

This study tests for the market efficiency of the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) after the year 2000 to determine the effect of technological advancements on market efficiency. Data that is used is the NSE 20 share index over the period 2001 to 2015; and the NSE All Share Index (NSE ASI) from its initiation during 2008 to 2015. We cannot accept the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) for the NSE using the serial correlation test, the unit root tests and the runs test. However, we can accept the EMH for the more robust variance ratio test. Overall, the results of the market efficiency are mixed. The most significant finding is that the efficiency of the NSE has increased since the year 2000 which suggests that advancements in technology have contributed to the increase in the market efficiency of the NSE. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)