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A research report submitted to The School of Accountancy, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Commerce in Accounting / The role and importance of a company’s CEO has become an increasingly important topic of research. The executive leadership has an important role to play in defining the strategy of the firm and its ability to compete. The value relevance of the CEO of a company and thus any changes pertaining thereto is understood to be due to developments in information technology and reporting requirements. This characterizes an information environment whereby investors are better equipped at making more informed investment decisions. The current business has become increasingly more competitive and volatile. In response to this, market participants place greater value on the importance of the CEO of the company. The CEO of a company may possess the ability to lever the company above its competitors through the development and implementation of company strategy. This research report assesses how market participants react in response to CEO appointment announcements using a sample of 105 announcements using an event study methodology. The value relevance pertaining hereto can be ascertained by observing the abnormal returns of the company’s share price on the date of the announcement. In furtherance of this assessment, the sample is disaggregated in accordance to event specific, firm-specific and non-event specific factors. Prior research suggests that this analysis facilitates more robust inferences to be made on how market participants react to CEO appointment announcements. In both Africa and South Africa, a strong body of literature is yet to be established on this effect. In general, findings display significant market reactions in response to the CEO change, thus suggesting that market participants perceive the CEO change as a significant event in the life of the firm. On the day of the event strong positive abnormal returns were generating thereby indicating that investors react positively to the appointment of a new CEO. However, the negative cumulative abnormal returns displayed in the periods before and after the event can be interpreted as the contrary. In addressing these conflicting views, the analysis of share performance in relation to firm-specific, event-specific and non-event related factors proves useful. The findings in this part of the section explain that negative returns are due to increased uncertainty over the future of the company, the positive returns on announcement date are found to be strongly associated with the type of successor appointed. These findings further reveal market participants react significantly strongly to a CEO change as seen by high negative cumulative abnormal returns. These findings contextualize how the value attached to CEOs by market participants vary in relation to different conditions. / MT2017

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016 / This study investigates how interest rates impact the South African Stock market. We investigate how the selected interest rates proxies predict the level of the FTSE/JSE All Share Index returns. The vector auto-regression (VAR) model was estimated and interpreted, based on the monthly data from June 1995 to September 2014. Using tools such as Granger causality, impulse response function and variance decomposition, we found that the selected variables did not significantly influence the FTSE/JSE All Share Index returns. Consequently, these variables are not useful as predictive tools for the South African stock market returns. / MT2017

A research report presented in partial fulfillment (50%) of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in Business Economics (Finance) in the School of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg September 2017 / Utilising the seminal work of Sloan (1996) this study investigates the accrual anomaly in South Africa. Utilising all firms listed on the All Share Index (ALSI) for the period 2002 to 2016, this study employs various tests surrounding the accrual anomaly. A regression analysis highlights a low persistence of earnings and the popular Mishkin (1983) test fails to prove a sufficient market reaction following changes in earnings. Accruals could pre-empt dramatic changes in future earnings but the observed stock price adjustment was only implicit in firms that suffered a drop in earnings. Additionally, the presence of post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) meant the market reaction following an earning’s announcement was gradually reflected in the stock price. The accrual anomaly relies on an overreaction following an earning’s surprise in the month that financials are released. All the previously mentioned meant that a simple fundamental-based (cash flow) investment strategy far outperformed a strategy based on earnings’ fixation (accruals). This study failed to find conclusive evidence of the accrual anomaly on the JSE. / MT 2018

This study examines the impact of strike action on the stock market in SA, particularly the company share price. In recent years, SA has seen a steady increase in strike actions related to wage increases, which have generally been of short duration. The study is conducted by computing abnormal returns and subsequently cumulative abnormal returns for listed companies that had experienced strikes between 2003 and 2009. The sample included 49 listed companies on Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The results of the study reveal that stock prices react negatively to the news of a strike action five days prior to the strike and continue on a downward trajectory approximately 5 days post the strike action. The study finds that JSE is not an efficient market as it takes days for the market to return to equilibrium after an announcement. The research observed that there were numerous factors that influence the occurrence of strikes/industrial actions in South Africa namely; SA’s political history, trade unions irrational behaviour, information asymmetry and economic climate among other factor.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce (M .Com (Finance) in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2018 / This research seeks to better understand the determinants of fund performance in a South African context. It will focus extensively on fund size, past performance, fees, and expense ratios and their relationship with performance. While other research has shown an inverse relationship between fees and performance, it seems divided on the relationship between fund size and performance in various markets. Due to the high regulatory environment, asset managers in South Africa face multiple restrictions that have limited their investible universe. The results presented in this research show that funds in South Africa exhibit the “Hot Hands” phenomenon as well as it documents the negative relationship between fees and performance for South African funds. Lastly, results show a positive relationship between fund size and performance where funds in South Africa enjoy economies of scale. / XL2019

The aim of this study is to explore how residents of northern Sweden's consumer behavior regarding groceries has changed during a time of high inflation. As a result of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the war in Ukraine, the Swedish economy currently suffers from high inflation. The inflation rate in December of 2022 was at 12.3%, which is the highest rate in the country since the financial crisis in the early 1990s. Moreover, When Russia invaded Ukraine, supply disruptions returned, causing an especially great disturbance in the energy supply which further increased inflation. An evident consequence of this, is the spike in food prices, and subsequently also changes in consumer behavior.  The purpose of the study is to expand the existing pool of empirical understanding of consumer behavior regarding groceries in the context of high inflation. The objective is to understand the internal and external factors, individual values and experiences that underlie changed consumer behaviors and purchasing decisions in the context of high food inflation among residents of northern Sweden. The goal is not to create generalizable results that can be applied to the different occupational groups. Instead, the aim was to identify patterns and themes among these respondents in their respective contexts.  The results show that consumer behavior has changed in several different ways. Some of the respondents have become more restrictive, others have increased their spendings on food, and others have changed their grocery shopping habits. Based on the analysis of the empirical findings, which were partly understood with existing consumer behavior theories, conclusions were drawn, and the research questions were answered. Thereon, implications and future research suggestions are presented.

This thesis analyses the relationship between month-ahead natural gas prices and imports into Europe against the backdrop of the 2022 Russian gas curtailment and gas price spike. Employing an ARCH model, the analysis focuses on the consortium of five major European consumers of natural gas: Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing natural gas prices in the European market, we include key variables such as natural gas consumption, production, storage levels, oil prices and temperature. The study finds that the European natural gas market is sensitive to decreased imports which exert a positive effect on prices and volatility. Therefore, we can infer that the proposed market factors influence gas prices in Europe. This research provides insights into the dynamics of natural gas pricing, presenting the implications of disruptions and uncertainties in the contemporary natural gas market.

In this thesis, we present three works on queues. In chapter 1, we analyze two non-work-conserving variations of the M/G/1 preemptive LIFO queue, focusing on deriving expressions for the limiting distribution of workload and related quantities. In the first model, preempted customers return to the front of the queue with a new service time, while in the second, they return with their original service time. We use queueing theory methods such as the Rate Conservation Law, PASTA, regenerative process theory and Little's Law. Our results include stability and heavy-traffic limits, as well as tail asymptotics for stationary workload. In chapter 2, we analyze a queueing model with price-sensitive customers, where the service provider aims to maximize revenue and minimize the average queue length. Customers arrive according to a Poisson process, join the queue if their willingness-to-pay exceeds the offered price, and are served in a first-in first-out manner with exponential service times. Our model is applicable to cloud computing, make-to-order manufacturing, and food delivery. We provide performance guarantees for a class of static pricing policies that can achieve a constant fraction of the optimal revenue with a small increase in expected queue length. We present results for the single-server, multi-server, and multi-class cases and provide numerical findings to demonstrate the empirical performance of our policies. In chapter 3, we analyze the Adaptive Non-deterministic Transmission Policy (ANTP), a technique addressing the Massive Access Problem (MAP) in telecommunications, which involves delaying packets at the points of origin to reduce congestion. We frame these delays as time spent at a "cafe" before proceeding to the service facility. We present sample-path results, giving conditions under which ANTP does not change the total sojourn time of packets, and results under a general stochastic framework, focusing on stability and constructing proper stationary versions of the model. We prove Harris recurrence of an underlying Markov process and find positive recurrent regeneration points under i.i.d. assumptions.

During the last two years, the electricity prices in Sweden have risen due to unstable weather conditions, recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and limited access to electricity. This has led to people finding alternative ways of heating up their residences, e.g., fireplace. The Swedish Medical Products Agency found an increase in carbon monoxide poisoning related to residential heating during 2022, which gave the topic a boost in the news and media. The aim for the study was to investigate the knowledge about carbon monoxide poisoning among Swedish house owners, and to see if there was a correlation between electricity prices and number of cases carbon monoxide poisoning in Sweden during the period 2008-2021. A paper- and web survey was conducted and sent out to 480 Swedish houseowners, selected by Postnord. Electricity prices and cases of carbon monoxide poisoning was received from the internet via Statistics Sweden and the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. Regarding the questions covered in this study, house owners' knowledge varied. Recognition of the symptoms and prevalence of carbon monoxide poisoning was known by most of the respondents, whilst course of action in case of intoxication was not as well known. A weak positive correlation was shown between electricity prices and number of cases carbon monoxide poisoning. The increase in electricity prices and the number of cases carbon monoxide poisoning during the 2020s, would make it interesting to do further investigation.