Financial Derivatives are one of the most popular and emerging innovations in the field of financial engineering. Since their inception, there has been a phenomenal growth in the volumes of derivatives traded all over the world. Financial markets are known to be extremely volatile and derivatives provide a way of eliminating or reducing the risks involved in these markets. Since these instruments derive their value from some underlying asset, trading in these instruments is bound to affect the underlying assets. Thus it becomes important to examine what these effects are and whether they have been favourable or detrimental to the underlying stock markets specially when there has been an explosive growth of these financial derivatives all over the world. This issue gains more importance in the case of emerging markets like India as they try to be more competitive and efficient as the developed Western markets. This thesis mainly deals with looking at this impact on the Indian stock markets. The Indian markets still being very new in this area, not many studies have been reported here related to this issue. The main focus of this thesis is to provide some more evidence on the impact of one kind of derivative instrument, namely options on different characteristics of underlying stocks in the Indian stock market. The thesis has the following objectives: • To examine the impact of option introduction on the price of underlying stocks in National Stock Exchange (NSE). • To examine the impact of option introduction on the volatility of underlying stocks in NSE • To examine the impact of option introduction on liquidity of underlying stocks in NSE NSE introduced derivatives beginning with index futures on June 12, 2000, followed by index options on June 4, 2001, options on individual securities on July 2, 2001 and finally futures on individual securities on November 9, 2001. Due to the temporal proximity of the introduction of index options and individual options, there exists a possibility of an interaction of these two effects. This problem is solved by a judiciously chosen sampling design. In particular, three groups of stocks are considered. The first group consists of stocks on which options were first introduced on 2nd July 2001 and thus would exhibit a combined effect of the two events if any. The second group consists of stocks on which options were introduced much later and therefore would show effects of individual option introduction if any. The third group comprises of nonoptioned stocks whose returns are considered around the date of index option introduction and thus would show effects of index option alone if any. To separate the two effects an ANOVA/ Logistic Regression model is used. An objective selection of the event and estimation windows is done using a Bayesian Change Point Analysis. The first part of the thesis looks at the effect of option introduction on the price of underlying stocks. A standard event study methodology as has been used in the literature is employed for this purpose. The study does not find any significant effect of option introduction on the prices. The second part of the thesis deals with the effect on volatility. Volatility is measured as the risk of a stock and as is done in the literature, three kinds of risk are looked at: total risk, systematic risk and the unsystematic risk. In case of the total risk, an F-test and an Ansari Bradley test is used to check for changes in the variance and scale parameters of market-adjusted continuously compounded returns of the stocks before and after option introduction. The results of these tests are recorded as a categorical variable taking on the value 0 for no change and 1 for a change and a Binomial Logistic Regression is used to separate the effects of the two events. Furthermore, after recording the results of the above mentioned tests as a categorical variable with three categories (0, 1, -1), a Multinomial Logistic Regression is also used in order to estimate the direction of the change (increase, decrease or no change). The ratios of after to before total risks are also analyzed using an ANOVA model. The systematic risk is measured using three kinds of betas – OLS betas, Scholes-Williams betas and Fowler-Rorke betas. The differences in the before and after betas of every stock are modelled using an ANOVA model in order to separate the two effects as well as the interaction effect. The unsystematic risk is estimated by the conditional variances and the unconditional variances of ARMA and ARMA-GARCH models fitted to market model excess returns. The ANOVA model is used here as well. In addition to this, the before and after ARCH and GARCH coefficients of GARCH (1, 1) models fitted to the excess returns are also compared using the ANOVA model. The results indicate that individual options are leading to a decline in total risk however index options are causing an increase in total risk. The interaction effect is significant in this case thereby causing an increase in total risk in the Group I stocks. The OLS betas indicate that individual option introduction seems to have increased the systematic risk. The Scholes-Williams betas indicate that index option introduction seems to have increased the systematic risk. The Fowler Rorke betas on the other hand, do not show any significant impact of individual option or index option introduction. For all the three betas index options introduction seems to have no effect on the systematic risk. Though the interaction effect seems to be significant in all the three cases, it however does not significantly affect the systematic risk in Group I stocks. As regards the unsystematic risk, both the conditional and unconditional variances of ARMA models show a significant reduction for individual option introduction but index options do not have any significant impact on either one of these measures. In case of unconditional variances of ARMA-GARCH models, none of the effects come out as significant. While comparing the news and persistence coefficients of GARCH (1, 1) models, the news coefficients indicate that the due to index option introduction, stocks are becoming more efficient in terms of absorbing the news more rapidly. No significant effect of either event is found on the persistence coefficients. The last part of the thesis deals with the liquidity issue. Liquidity has been measured using two measures – relative volume (based on daily data) and implicit bid-ask spread given by Roll (1984) (calculated from intra-day data). In case of the liquidity measures, the Logistic Regression models are used i.e. a categorical variable with two or three categories obtained from the results of a Wilcoxon Rank Sum test for comparing the median volume and spread before and after option introduction, is used. It is found that for the relative volume, individual option introduction has led to a favourable effect in terms of increasing the volume post introduction of options; however index options seem to have had a negative effect. As for the spread, index options seem to have had a stabilizing influence on the underlying stocks than the individual options.

<p>Background:</p><p>Recent business paper articles observe that stocks soar when there is a change in ownership. The clothing company JC climbed 26% when it was announced Torsten Jansson had increased his holdings. Daydream, a computer game developer, followed this trend increasing its market value by 17% on the news that TA Capital had increased its hold-ings. In these examples, the market learned of the changes in ownership through a press release created by the acquiring entity. These pieces of news, also known as ownership disclosures, is the target of this thesis.</p><p>Purpose:</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether ownership disclosures result in abnormal stock price changes. Furthermore, the aim is to find out if there are any differ-ences in returns depending on who announced the ownership disclosure. In order to fulfil this purpose, a quantitative approach was used.</p><p>Method:</p><p>A random sample of 160 ownership disclosures is gathered. 77 of these are classified as passive- and 83 as active investors. For each of these pieces of news, 183 days of historical stock price data is retrieved. This data is then parsed through the market model event-study framework.</p><p>Findings:</p><p>Graphically analyzing the whole sample indicates that the market is not efficient in its strong form. The same is true when dividing the sample into passive- and active investors. Statistically, an abnormal return is confirmed for the active investors, but not for the whole sample or the passive investors.</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>By looking at the price change effects of ownership disclosures, the Stockholm Stock Exchange O-list is determined to be efficient at the semi-strong level. The anomaly caused by active investors leads to the possibility of making a profit of 2.70% between day -1 and day +1 relative to the day of the ownership disclosure being sent out. It should be noted, though, that transaction costs and taxes are not taken into consideration.</p>

<p>Problem: Interim and annual reports are some of the most crucial sources of information regarding companies’ performances. Interested parties such as analysts and investors assess this information and compare it with expectations. Analysts’ expectations of companies’ interim reports are of great importance when analysing the future development of share movement. Possible deviations between analysts’ expectations and actual presented results from the individual companies might change the perceptions of specific future stock prices. Furthermore business sectors have different characteristics and might respond differently to unexpected earnings news. Over- and underperformance of the presented results in relation to analysts’ expectations could create specific stock price movements over a forthcoming period depending on the nature of the report. The authors label this phenomenon as persistent trends.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to establish whether persistency and trends could be observed in the future development of companies’ stock prices with regard to analysts’ expectations and the true result presented by the companies.</p><p>Method: With a quantitative approach the authors conducted an event study aiming to fulfill the purpose of this thesis. The study consisted of all fourth quarter reports presented 2001 throughout 2004 by the companies presently listed on the Most traded section of the Stockholm stock exchange A-list. The authors defined the nature of the studied reports as positive or negative depending on whether the pre-tax earning exceeded or were lower than the analysts’ expectations. Furthermore the authors constructed a mathematical formula which distinguished if the possible deviation of actual results compared to expectations was significant. The share price performance for two months subsequent to the earnings announcement was recorded and compared with the OMXS30 development for the equivalent time, thereby the authors gathered empirical evidence to fulfill the purpose. Furthermore the data was also divided into business subcategories to provide answers to whether there was uniform response to unexpected earnings information among business sectors.</p><p>Results: The authors presented empirically founded evidence for the existence of persistent trends following the presentation of both positive and negative reports. The authors also rejected the presence of a uniform response to deviating earnings information in the business sectors.</p>

Background: Recent business paper articles observe that stocks soar when there is a change in ownership. The clothing company JC climbed 26% when it was announced Torsten Jansson had increased his holdings. Daydream, a computer game developer, followed this trend increasing its market value by 17% on the news that TA Capital had increased its hold-ings. In these examples, the market learned of the changes in ownership through a press release created by the acquiring entity. These pieces of news, also known as ownership disclosures, is the target of this thesis. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether ownership disclosures result in abnormal stock price changes. Furthermore, the aim is to find out if there are any differ-ences in returns depending on who announced the ownership disclosure. In order to fulfil this purpose, a quantitative approach was used. Method: A random sample of 160 ownership disclosures is gathered. 77 of these are classified as passive- and 83 as active investors. For each of these pieces of news, 183 days of historical stock price data is retrieved. This data is then parsed through the market model event-study framework. Findings: Graphically analyzing the whole sample indicates that the market is not efficient in its strong form. The same is true when dividing the sample into passive- and active investors. Statistically, an abnormal return is confirmed for the active investors, but not for the whole sample or the passive investors. Conclusion: By looking at the price change effects of ownership disclosures, the Stockholm Stock Exchange O-list is determined to be efficient at the semi-strong level. The anomaly caused by active investors leads to the possibility of making a profit of 2.70% between day -1 and day +1 relative to the day of the ownership disclosure being sent out. It should be noted, though, that transaction costs and taxes are not taken into consideration.

Baltijos šalių kapitalo rinkos pripažįstamos kaip augančios ir perspektyvios, tačiau įmonės vis dar nesiryžta dėl įvairių priežasčių įtraukti savo akcijas į vertybinių popierių rinkos prekybos sąrašus. Nors užsienio autorių darbuose yra plačiai nagrinėjamos pirminio viešų akcijų platinimo prielaidos ir pasekmės bendrovėms, mokslinių tyrimų, sistemingai atliekamų Baltijos šalyse, nėra. Šio diplominio darbo tikslas yra ištirti pirminio viešo akcijų platinimo pasekmes bendrovių veiklos rezultatyvumui. Analizuojamos įmonės, OMX biržoje vykdžiusios pirminius viešus akcijų siūlymus 2004 – 2006 m.. Remiantis atliktu tyrimu, teigiama, kad po pirminio viešo akcijų platinimo įmonėse padidėja pardavimai ir pelningumas, išauga investicijos, sumažėja finansinis svertas. Taip pat patvirtinama, kad pirminio viešo akcijų siūlymo pasekmės yra skirtingos didelės, vidutinės ir mažos kapitalizacijos įmonėms. Pirminio viešo akcijų platinimo pasekmės įmonių veiklos rezultatyvumui didelės ir vidutinės kapitalizacijos įmonėms yra teigiamos, tuo tarpu mažos kapitalizacijos įmonės, bent jau nagrinėjamame trumpame laikotarpyje patvirtina užsienio autorių tyrimų rezultatus apie veiklos rezultatyvumo pablogėjimą, vertinant pelningumo rodiklius. / This diploma paper investigates the change in operating performance of firms as they make the transition from private to public ownership. The sample is based on 30 OMX firms that go public during 2004 -2006, examining their financial performance one year prior to the IPO, at the time of the IPO and following year. The firms’ pre-IPO and post-IPO financial performance is compared. Although few recent studies find a decline in operating performance among IPO firms in foreign countries, this paper documents a significant increase in selected measures of financial performance. The results of this paper suggest that IPO firms display high growth in sales, profits, assets and measures of profitability. Moreover, the IPO firms reduce their financial leverage after going public. The results also provide strong support that transition from private to public ownership has different impact on large, medium and small capitalization firms.

交易所在證券市場中的監管乃是對上市公司監督的第一道防線，其紀律處分措施更是警示市場參與者的重要資訊。本文以中國深圳交易所誠信檔案中對上市公司監管的處罰與處分公告進行分析，實證結果發現交易所的紀律處分事件公告後，市場並不會有顯著的反應。再者，企業的監督治理機制能夠補捉與偵查到企業發生交易所紀律處分的可能性。最後，研究進一步發現交易所的紀律處分將有助於改善企業的財務報導品質。 / The first line of defense in firm supervision is a stock exchange regulatory enforcement, and its disciplinary sanctions convey important information to stock market participants. This study thus examines the causes and consequences of the disciplinary sanctions on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. This study also uses disciplinary penalties found in credit record files to analyze the effect of stock exchange regulatory enforcement. The results indicate that the firms with disciplinary sanctions have no reaction on stock price. Additionally, this study finds that governance and supervision mechanisms can explain a.) occurrence of disciplinary sanctions in a given firm, and b.) probability of detecting stock exchange regulatory enforcement. Finally, further analysis suggests that disciplinary sanctions significantly improve firms’ financial reporting quality.

There are plenty of things said about the financial industry, an always ongoing debate, to say the least. We have identified a complex situation with three dimensions: Initial public offerings, Venture capital, and Lockup agreements. IPOs are generally difficult to put a price on because the market is not united yet, which creates uncertainties. Venture capital firms invest into startups, often with the incentive of bringing them to an IPO and then make a fast cash out exit. Lockup agreements are contracts that prevent insiders from dumping their shares during a set period in the beginning of the IPO. Additionally, based on the market efficiency theory, a market should always be efficient. But does it play out when these characteristics are affecting each other? The purpose of this research was to investigate whether there are abnormal returns in the financial performance for publicly listed companies on the London Stock Exchange at the end of their lockup period. We sorted on venture capital backed companies and sought to explore differences between VC backed, Non-VC backed firms, and the entire market. The research question for this study is: ‘Does The theoretical aspects of this research’s ontological and epistemological views were set in positivism and objectivism with a deductive approach. The financial performance was key in this research, and it was essential to get ample and appropriate data, therefore a quantitative research method was used with an archival research strategy and explanatory research design. We explored a big research gap in this area after the financial crisis 2008, which made us look at IPOs from 2009 to 2012 with an event window as our time horizon. To answer the research question and fulfill our purpose, four hypotheses were developed with focus on VC backed firms, Non-VC backed firms, the entire market, and one shorter event window. Our results prove that the market efficiency theory does not hold. To answer the research question, we found negative abnormal returns after the lockup expiration date for both Non- VC backed firms and the entire market. However, we were unable to provide a statistically significant result for VC backed firms. There was an extra clear trend during the middle 20 days, and we suggest and encourage to further research with a longer time horizon than [- 20, +20] days.

Följande uppsats undersöker hur svensk utbetalningspolitik har utvecklats under åren 1992-2012. Urvalet består av de företag som under våren 2014 var noterade på Stockholmsbörsens “Large”, “Mid” eller “Small Cap” lista. Återköpens andel av den totala utbetalningsandelen visar sig inte vara lika hög som andra internationella studier har visat. Det är istället utdelningarna som utgör merparten av de totala utbetalningarna. Däremot så har andelen företag som enbart delar ut minskat trots att utdelningarna ökat, vilket också styrks av resultat från tidigare studier. Lägre nettoresultat under finanskrisen följs av minskade utbetalningar under 2008-2009. Återköpen minskar under denna period markant till att i stort sätt utebli, vilket bekräftar tidigare studier. / This paper provides evidence on Swedish payout policy during the past 20 years (1992-2012). The sample data consists of companies that were listed on Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE) “Large”, “Mid” or “Small Cap” list during spring 2014. We show that repurchases of shares still represents a small proportion of the total payout, which contradicts results from other international studies. The dividends therefore still constitute the bulk of the total payments. We document a drop in net income during the financial crisis followed by reduced payments during 2008-2009. Repurchases decrease significantly during this period to virtually absent; confirming previous studies that argue that repurchases are a more flexible payout method than dividends.

本文旨在探討金控公司合併換股比率之決定因素，變數包含財務與非財務因素。依財務變數選用標準之不同，區分為一般財務指標模型與五構面指標模型，兩模型之非財務變數皆相同。截至民國100年12月31日，樣本共43家。一般財務指標模型包含八項財務變數，五構面指標模型則包含七項財務變數，由中央存款保險公司金融預警系統中資本適足性、資產品質、管理績效、營利性、流動性等五個構面中捕捉。一般財務指標模型中共有每股淨值、員工平均年齡、員工學歷程度、董監事持股比率、服務據點等五個變數達到影響換股比率之顯著結果，截距項係數的不顯著結果，顯示主併與被併公司在併購價格中未有顯著溢價或折價之收付；五構面指標模型則有財務槓桿、貝里比率、每人營收淨額、稅前純益占實收資本比率、稅後淨利率、員工平均年齡、員工人數、服務據點八項變數達到顯著結果。五構面模型解釋能力較一般財務指標模型高，但截距項呈現顯著負值，顯示可能有併購溢價或其他為五構面所遺漏的變數未被納入。 / The objective of this study is to discuss the determinants of the stock exchange ratios for mergers of the financial holding companies in Taiwan. All factors are divided into two parts, financial and non-financial. There are two models used in this study, the common financial index model and the five-perspective index model, depending on the choosing standard in financial factors. Financial factors in the common financial index model are widely used in financial statement analysis, while in five-perspective index model they’re chosen based upon five critical elements of CAMEL ratings system, a method of evaluating the health of credit unions. All non-financial factors used are indifferent between the two models. Choosing the study sample which has been a member of financial holding company until December 2011 and using ordinary least square (OLS) method, the empirical investigations suggest that in the common financial index model there are five factors have significantly positive effects on the exchange ratio, which are book value per share, average employees’ ages, the educational background of employees, corporate ownership and service locations. The intercepts in this model are not statistically significant in the regressions, implying that there are not any premiums or discounts after incorporating the impact of the financial and non-financial factors. In the five-perspective index model there are eight factors have significantly positive effects on the exchange ratio, which are financial leverage, Berry ratio, net sales revenue per employee, the proportion of capital of the pretax income, net profit margin, average ages of employees, number of employees and service locations. In summary, the interpretation power of the five-perspective index model is greater than the common financial index model. But the fact that the intercepts in this model are statistically significant, implying that there might be some other factors which have been omitted.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is an important source of funds for firms and provides opportunities for investors. However, the economic boom of 1990-1996, the Asian Economic Crisis and the recession of 1997-2002 have affected the performance of firms listed at SET. The dividend policies of listed firms have also been influenced by these fluctuations in the business cycle.This study investigates the phenomenon of disappearing dividends in the developing capital market of Thailand. It adopts a similar methodology to Fama and French (2001) by classifying listed firms in line with changes in their dividend polices over the period 1990 to 2002. More specifically, the study explores the characteristics of firms which pay dividends, non-payers, former payers and firms which have never paid dividends. These characteristics include profitability, investment opportunities and firm size. The analysis uses firm characteristics for predicting the dividend policies of listed firms. Changes in firm characteristics and the propensity to pay dividends are identified in this process.The analysis suggests that firms which pay dividends tend to be large and highly profitable, although they possess low investment opportunities. The study also suggests that the characteristics of firms which paid dividends changed slightly before the crisis of 1997 and changed markedly during the crisis. However, after the crisis (1998-2002) the characteristics of firms are similar to those observed before the crisis. This result is attributed to the fact that some firms have resumed paying dividends after briefly ceasing this payment during the crisis. More importantly, when firm characteristics are held constant, the propensity to pay dividends of listed firms declined slightly before the crisis and declined strongly after the crisis. Consequently, the majority of new firms and many mature firms do not pay dividends.The findings of this study are consistent with the results of Fama and French (2001), particularly with regard to the characteristics of firms and changes in the propensity to pay dividends. However, this study extends the knowledge on the phenomenon of disappearing dividends by focussing on a developing economy, Thailand. Finally, this study suggests that investors should consider the characteristics of firms, changes in these characteristics and the propensity to pay dividends when identifying opportunities for investment.