Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research report investigates the history and current status of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Alternative Exchange and its performance over time. The focus is on comparing the AltX with the JSE Main Board, the JSE top 40, The JSE Small Cap Index and London’s Alternative Investments Market AIM. The different listing requirements and the JSE Main Board will be explored. It then goes further to compare the performance of the JSE with that of AltX and AIM over time. A comparison between listings and de-listings is drawn between the AltX and the JSE Main Board. Complete risk analysis is then conducted in an attempt to compare the risk of listing on AltX, JSE and AIM and determine whether the AltX holds more risk than the other exchanges given its relaxed listing requirements and market sentiment around AltX. In comparing risk analysis with market sentiment as well as actual results, it can be concluded that AltXwhen analysed using beta; standard deviation; maximum draw down; Value at Risk; and the Sharpe ratio, does not carry significantly more risk than the JSE Main Board or AIM. The AltXdoes meet its requirements and is doing what it is designed to do, namely offering an opportunity for small and medium sized companies to raise capital and providing investors with the opportunity to become shareholder and trade in those shares as well as being a spring board to the JSE Main Board, but that moving to the Main Board does not always create more value for shareholders or has a positive influence on share price or liquidity.This brings the conclusion that company performance is still based on the individual performance of the company and not dependant on where the company is listed.

In this thesis, I investigate sense-making processes in financial markets. My focus is on the role of narratives in these routine activities in digital market places or what Cetina and Preda (2007) describe as scopic market systems. I conceptualize narratives told by market professionals in these systems as another form of market device (Callon et al., 2007) which combines different modes of knowing and explanation to cope with flows of data/information and funds, and works to generate value from assets exposed to markets. From a sociological perspective, I argue that the substitution of social network-based information search and face-to-face exchange relationships in financial markets with flow-based and anonymised representations and exchange relationships do not undermine the importance of social networks in shaping sense-making and decision-making in financial markets. However to argue so, I broaden the concept of social network with the help of Bourdieu’s (1997) notion of economic, social and cultural capital. I introduce the notions of field and meta-field of power, habitus, and position-taking by Bourdieu (1997, and Wacquant 1992) to my conceptual discussion of financial markets. In light of this, I describe financial markets as hierarchical and competitive structures inhabited by different groups of investors and intermediaries and shaped by competition and conflict among these groups. I argue that these groups’ position in the field is conditioned by their economic, social, and cultural capital which are generated and sustained within and outwith the field. Consequently, I suggest that these groups’ sense-making and investment activities and their use of market devices including storytelling acts should exhibit distinctive modes in accordance with the specific positions they have voluntarily or involuntarily taken in the field. To substantiate these claims with narrative evidence, I present the case of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) in Turkey. Opened in 1985, the ISE provides an instrumental case to study the role of sense-making narratives as another form of market device in scopic market systems with a Bourdieusian sociological framework. As gathered from publicly available information and early pilot fieldwork in the ISE headquarters, the ISE as a field has been occupied by three dominant investor types since 1991. These are domestic retail (DRIs), domestic institutional (DIIs), and foreign institutional investors (FIIs). These three groups have a dominant weight in either trading volume or share ownership in the ISE. Drawing on my (participatory) observations between 2008 and 2009 in an asset management company and four brokerage houses which served DRIs and/or DIIs and FIIs, I present evidence on how distinct combinations of economic, social and cultural capitals among these dominant investor-intermediary groups shape their sense-making activities and consequent sense-making stories in the ISE.

This study is a test of the efficiency of the London Traded Options Market. Because it uses the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model, it is also a test of option pricing. In the process of examining call option price behaviour it investigates the effects of three empirical factors. First, it investigates the effect of a non-constant share price volatility. Hitherto, there has been no agreed procedure on modelling or forecasting the future share price volatility. This study shows that the GARCH process has the best forecasting accuracy. The ex ante GARCH volatility estimate is then incorporated in the Black-Scholes model. Because the volatility is assumed constant in the Black-Scholes model, the consideration of adapting the GARCH volatility into the model sheds insight on bridging empirical results and theoretical requirements. Second, because the London Traded Options Market is thinly traded the quoted prices may not reflect prices at which trade did or could take place. However, information on call option trading volume may not be available. This study develops and implements an analytical criterion to select the most actively traded call options. The call options selected by this criterion bear the basic characteristics of those frequently traded call options where trading volume is available. Third, this study uses the bid and ask quotations for shares and call options to test the efficiency of the London Traded Options Market. By incorporating the bid-ask spread directly in the establishment of arbitrage portfolios, an accurate assessment of transactions data can be made. The results of incorporating these factors in the test for market efficiency reveal that, despite the identification of mispriced call options, it would not have been possible to exploit the mispricing by setting up arbitrage portfolios. It must therefore be concluded that the London Traded Options Market was trading efficiently over the period of this study.

This thesis considers the modelling of ultra high frequency (UHF) …nancial data from South African markets. The approach to be taken is that such irregularly spaced data can be viewed as a realization of a marked point process. We propose a statistical model that incorporates both the unequally spaced transaction times (the points) as well as the movements of the associated returns (the marks). In all data sets investigated, no change in the value of the mark accounts for more that half the observations. If “no change” is considered as the censoring of some underlying process, we can explicitly model both the censoring of marks and the underlying process by utilizing methods for Markov chains and missing values. All models considered hitherto in the literature assume homogeneity of structure within a UHF data set. Data analyses indicate strongly that such an assumption is not justi…ed. The proposed model aims to exploit this observation. The diurnal (time of day) e¤ect is a form of non-stationarity commonly found in UHF data sets. We show that the method currently considered standard practice is inadequate and we will propose modi…cations of it. Consideration is given to the classi…cation of heterogeneous subsets that arises naturally in UHF data, for instance daily subsets of a UHF data set. We …nd evidence in support of some market microstructure theories, but no theory is supported by all data sets considered. We pay attention to technical issues surrounding the application of certain tests to large samples. As large samples are common in UHF data sets methods that are sensitive to large sample size, for example the Ljung-Box test, are not suitable. / Professor Freek Lombard

Since the end of the 20th century capital markets have undergone a fundamental change. Under the influence of globalization they have become more interconnected and more functional than before on the base of information technology. Although the financial crisis of 2008 slowed down this development and liberalization, currently markets are rising again and one of the most striking trends is their integration into multinational units. An example of Stock Exchange Cooperation in the early 21st century is the CEESEG group associating Central and Eastern European Stock Exchanges, namely, the Wiener Börse, the Prague Stock Exchange, the Ljubljana Stock Exchange and the Budapest Stock Exchange. The theme of this thesis is to analyze the example of this geographically close and, thanks to the PSE, directly related, interesting trend of Stock Exchange cooperation, the manner of its function and impact on every member Stock Exchange.

Last three decades stock exchanges have been developing and growing rapidly. The first objective of this thesis is to provide a wider public a comprehensive overview on integration and consolidation of transatlantic stock exchanges and their consequences in the form of various types of stock mergers, acquisitions and cooperations. The thesis is primarily devoted to analysis of the impact of both trends and their implications for stock exchanges world and the second objective is to attempt a empirical analysis of the effects of ongoing integration and consolidation of the transatlantic stock markets. The first chapter deals with past and current changes in the transatlantic stock markets and continues to look theoretically at detailed integration and consolidation trends, their definition, assumptions, reasons, importance, benefits, obstacles and risks, approaches and scenarios. I clarified both trends not only in general theoretical level, but also took into account the practical aspects and differences of the continental and Anglo-Saxon stock market trends and contemporary trends in both transatlantic stock market. In the second chapter is devoted attention to manifestations of both current trends in transatlantic markets in the form of models and forms of cooperation stock exchange. After a theoretical introduction to the cooperation and competition, stock markets, I mentioned the origins and history of cooperation stock markets, with particular emphasis on real models and forms of stock markets in Europe and the USA. In the next sub-chapter I try to analyze the realized and unrealized exchange and cooperation projects of the multilateral trading system on the market in the last decade. Finally, the second chapter deals with past, present and future architecture of the integrated and consolidated transatlantic stock market. The third chapter is the key part of all thesis where I tried to come up with a comprehensive empirical analysis of the effects of stock exchange mergers and alliances, and to investigate the effects of two major transatlantic stock markets, NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX through selected market indicators, financial ratios and data from financial statements, as well as exchanges' architectures, analysis of cross-border trading costs and further explore the significance of the interdependence of markets before and after their cooperation which was tested on movement of particular daily returns of indices and traded volumes. The testing is based on the law of one price, which can be interpreted in a way that in an efficient market all identical goods must have only one price. The tested interdependence is examined by using statistical tools: correlation and time series analysis.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / The capital structure theory was pioneered by Modigliani and Miller (1958). In their study, Modigliani and Miller (1958) argued that capital structure was irrelevant to firm value. There is also significant theory on the capital structure of firms and its determinants. Using a panel of non-financial firms listed on the JSE Securities Exchange, we investigate the relevance of capital structure on firm value and investigate the capital structure of firms in South Africa. The results of the analysis on the relevance of capital structure on firm value indicated that there is no statistically significant relationship between firm value and the capital structure of firms. This analysis was conducted for the general sample of firms in the study, within industries and by firm size, however, the results were consistent throughout all the analysis. The results of the capital structure and its determinants analysis indicated that South African firms followed a pecking order theory. The results also indicated that profitability, size, asset tangibility and tax shield has a statistically significant relationship to gearing or the firm’s capital structure. The analysis of the South African firms’ capital structure indicated that firms in South Africa tend to use more long-term debt than short-term debt. The leverage ratios also differed among industries with the Health care industry having the highest levels of leverage and the Technology industry having the lowest levels of leverage.

This study investigates the capital structure practices of companies listed on the JSE by analysing their operating performance before and after significant leverage events defined as increases or decreases of more than 30% in a year. We develop a performance scorecard that acts as a complete synopsis of firm performance on aspects relating to leverage. We use a fixed effects regression on unbalanced panel data to test the relationship between the leverage change and 12 concurrent performance variables selected on the basis of their pre-established impact on firm leverage according to prior studies. We also test the relationship between the leverage change and the same set of performance variables five years before and five years after the event. We run a multiple discriminant analysis to test the predictive ability of our model. A 20% hold-out sample achieves a 48% correct classification rate.

Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Finance & Investment in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management Wits Business School at the University of the Witwatersrand 2017 / There are 29 formal stock exchanges on the African continent with 23 based in sub-Saharan Africa. The pace and stage of stock market development has varied among most of the countries as only four stock markets have more than 50 listed stocks; five have at least 20 listed stocks; and the remaining 14 have less than 20 stocks. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) stands out in Africa as by far the continent’s largest, most liquid and best regulated market and is home to some of the continent’s largest and most sophisticated companies. Cross listing refers to the listing of ordinary shares of a firm on an exchange other than the stock exchange in its registered jurisdiction. There are 24 JSE listed companies that have cross listed on other Sub-Saharan African stock exchanges. The bulk of these, (14), have cross listed on the Namibia Stock Exchange, 3 cross listed on Botswana Stock Exchange, 1 on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, 1 on the Ghanaian Stock Exchange, 3 on the Malawian Stock Exchange, 1 on the Zambian Stock Exchange and 1 on the Zimbabwean Stock Exchange. The study establishes the possible reasons and benefits of cross listing on other sub-Saharan exchanges for JSE listed companies. The study also provides insight into the possible effects, (financial as well as any others), of cross listing on other sub-Saharan African exchanges that a number of JSE listed entities have experienced. The study uses financial information collected from a public platform, (Sharedata), to compute financial ratio’s to determine the financial implications of the JSE companies cross listing on other sub-Saharan exchanges. The effects of cross listing on the JSE companies are then measured using latent growth curve modelling and a paired t test. The study concludes that there is no evidence to suggest that there are financial benefits for JSE listed companies to cross list on other sub-Saharan exchanges. The study further suggests that JSE listed companies should rather consider cross listing for qualitative reasons rather for any quantitative reasons. / MT2017

A research report presented in partial fulfilment (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 Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 6 October 2017 / This study tests the efficacy of the liquidity variables of Liu (2006) in determining the existence of a liquidity premium on the South African market and finds evidence of a significant liquidity effect. This factor is determined to be robust and to proxy for a different underlying effect than the Fama-French (1992) effects and the market risk premium. The analysis is performed through portfolio sorts and tests for difference of portfolio means, as well as both a univariate and multivariate regression analysis. The sample period covers 16 years from 2000 to 2015. The relationship between size and liquidity is clear, however liquidity is found to be separate from the size effect. This study recommends the use of a liquidity-augmented model for the analysis of asset returns in South Africa. / GR2018