<p>This paper evaluates if international stock markets are exposed to fluctuation in the</p><p>exchange rate and whether this exposure is related to exports, imports and inflation. Eight</p><p>countries are studied: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Hong Kong, Sweden, Switzerland, the</p><p>United Kingdom and the United States. The empirical investigation covers the period</p><p>from 1995 to 2004 and the estimation is conducted using the framework of Patro, D.K.,</p><p>Wald, J.K. and Wu, Y. (2002). The empirical findings show that all international stock</p><p>markets are exposed to exchange rate risk, except for Brazil. The amount of exchange rate</p><p>exposure is found to be sensitive to a country’s export, import and inflation. The results</p><p>imply that there are predictable relationship between changes in the return of the national</p><p>stock index return and fluctuation in the exchange rate. In addition, imports and exports</p><p>as well as inflation may be useful in predicting exchange rate risks.</p>

This paper evaluates if international stock markets are exposed to fluctuation in the exchange rate and whether this exposure is related to exports, imports and inflation. Eight countries are studied: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Hong Kong, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The empirical investigation covers the period from 1995 to 2004 and the estimation is conducted using the framework of Patro, D.K., Wald, J.K. and Wu, Y. (2002). The empirical findings show that all international stock markets are exposed to exchange rate risk, except for Brazil. The amount of exchange rate exposure is found to be sensitive to a country’s export, import and inflation. The results imply that there are predictable relationship between changes in the return of the national stock index return and fluctuation in the exchange rate. In addition, imports and exports as well as inflation may be useful in predicting exchange rate risks.

This thesis has the intention to investigate the risk situation for small investors in the domestic residential property market in Sweden, and discuss some alternatives for reducing that risk. Focus will be on risk reduction by diversification. Residential property is considered to be a rather safe investment for the long term investor. The return is determined by the change of value for the property (capital growth), and the direct return through net rental income. When investments in residential property are compared with other types of investments, they have high returns compared to their stan-dard deviation. Diversification gains are described in the frame of the Capital Assets Pricing Model (CAPM). The CAPM shows that portfolios based on residential property can reduce their risk and maintain the same level of returns through diversification. To get the best effect out of this diversification this should be done with assets that are least correlated with residential property. This thesis has tested with other residential property, other real estate and equities/bonds. Of which equities/bonds gave the best results. An optimal portfolio based on historical data from 1984 – 2003 suggests a portfolio with 40 -60 % residential property, 30 – 60 % bonds and 0 – 10 % equities. This is with a risk free rate between 3 – 11 %. The debt ratio for this portfolio is determined by the investor’s risk-aversity and utility function. The positive effects from diversification have to be compared to the increased scale effect from investing in more residential property when chosing new investment items. Investors can get a good diversification performance even with a few stakes. The main point in this thesis is that investors with residential property can get positive effects from diversification and the effects from diversification increase the more different the investments are.

Since 1994 when the Warsaw Stock Exchange has been acknowledged as a full member of World Federation of Exchanges and became one of the fastest developing security markets in the region, it has been hard to find any studies relating to the assets price performance on this exchange. That is why I decided to write this paper in which the Nobel price winning theory namely the Capital Asset Pricing Model has been tested. The Capital Asset Pricing Model (or CAPM) is an equilibrium model which relates asset’s risk measured by beta to its returns. It states that in a competitive market the expected rate of return on an asset varies in direct proportion to its beta. In this paper the performance of 100 stocks traded continuously on the main market in the years 2002-2006 has been tested. I have performed three independent tests of the CAPM based on different methods and techniques to better check the validity of the theory and then compared the results. As in the case of many other studies of the Capital Asset Pricing Model, this one didn’t find a complete support for the model but couldn’t reject some of its features either.

År 2005 införde Europeiska unionen en förordning som innebär att alla svenska börsnoterade företag måste nedskrivningspröva sin goodwill istället för att som tidigare göra årliga avskrivningar. Detta utförs med hjälp av en diskonteringsränta och påverkar utfallet om nedskrivning ska göras eller inte. Vår uppsats baseras på en studie av Carlin och Finch (2009) som jämförde australiensiska företags redovisade diskonteringsräntor med teoretiska sådana beräknade med hjälp av CAPM. De fann att en stor del av företagen använde en opportunistisk diskonteringsränta som gjorde att de undvek att skriva ned sin goodwill. Carlin och Finch val av modell fick dock kritik och därför använder vi både CAPM och trefaktormodellen när vi gör motsvarande undersökning på noterade svenska företag. Våra resultat visar inga tydliga tecken på att företagen i vår undersökning använder sig av en opportunistisk diskonteringsränta och det är endast marginella skillnader mellan våra båda modeller. Det går inte heller att se några tydliga tecken på att företag vars goodwillpost är viktig, det vill säga hög goodwillandel eller en hög goodwillintensitet, i större grad använder en opportunistisk diskonteringsränta vid nedskrivningsprövning av goodwill.

This study uses cluster analysis as the methodology to explore policy of the asset allocation as well as the selection of equities under the multiple-factor asset pricing models. Based on the data of financial market recorded on Bloomberg from 2000/1/4 to 2012/2/10, the conclusions of this study are summarized as following: First at all, under the significance level of 5%, P/S ratio should be included in the multiple-factor asset pricing model. Nonetheless, the significance of proxy agent of foreign exchange volatility in terms of 11-day moving average of USD/JPY foreign exchange spot rate, as well as the interest spread in terms of yields on 10-year US government bond subtracting 3-month US treasury bill cannot pass the required significance level. Second, the rates of stock return as Qualcomm, Intel and Texas instruments in the industry supply chain of technology products, will be positively related to interest spread, with the variable of ¡§Foreign_Volitility¡¨ negatively related to those rates of return as well as sales growth momentum positively related to those. As far as those rates of stock return 3C brand companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Dell and IBM, the interpreting capability of variable of ¡§Foreign_Volitility¡¨ under the assumptions of market structure in this study, will be mixed, with the interest spread positively related to those returns and P/S ratio generating mixed outcomes. As far as those equities such as GE, Procter & Gamble, Home Depot, Tiffany, AIG, NIKE, Exxon Mobile Corp, the interpreting capability of variable of ¡§Foreign_Volitility¡¨ under the assumptions of market structure in this study, will be negatively related to stock return except for Exxon Mobile Corp, with the interest spread generating mixed outcomes and P/S ratio positively related to those returns.

To face the competition in the business environment, the company should continuously execute the capital investment to reinforce its competitive ability and to insure the endless business operation. Due to the capital investment involving huge money and long-term impact, the company should considerately and thoughtfully evaluate the financial feasibility of capital investment prior to making decision. Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is usually used as benchmark to evaluate the capital investment. WACC is made up of two key elements. The cost of equity, one of both, however, is difficult to measure. This article, taking C company as an example, is focused on how to apply 3 different models such as Dividend Growth Model (DGM), Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Free Cash Flow Model (FCF) to compute the cost of equity as well as on analyzing the outcomes of those models. The outcomes of DGM, CAPM and FCF are respectively 11.82%, 14.2%, and 10.50%, and the highest one is the outcome computed from CAPM. The outcomes computed from both DGM and FCF are narrowly different. As compared with actual rate of return of C company stock (11.6% adjusted from ex-cash dividend and ex-stock dividend), it is found that the outcome of DGM is the nearest to actual rate of return of C company stock, then FCF¡¦s is next one and CAPM¡¦s is most different. However, on condition that the company did not distribute cash dividend in its record or stayed on the abnormal growth stage, the DGM could not be applicable. Internal capital budgeting includes expansion of production expansion, replacement, improvement and innovation. Due to the fact that the attribute of this kind of capital investment is similar to that of the company¡¦s business of line, FCF would be the most appropriate model to estimate the cost of equity to determine the WACC for the purpose of internal capital budgeting evaluation.

<p>This thesis has the intention to investigate the risk situation for small investors in the domestic residential property market in Sweden, and discuss some alternatives for reducing that risk. Focus will be on risk reduction by diversification.</p><p>Residential property is considered to be a rather safe investment for the long term investor. The return is determined by the change of value for the property (capital growth), and the direct return through net rental income. When investments in residential property are compared with other types of investments, they have high returns compared to their stan-dard deviation. Diversification gains are described in the frame of the Capital Assets Pricing Model (CAPM).</p><p>The CAPM shows that portfolios based on residential property can reduce their risk and maintain the same level of returns through diversification. To get the best effect out of this diversification this should be done with assets that are least correlated with residential property. This thesis has tested with other residential property, other real estate and equities/bonds. Of which equities/bonds gave the best results. An optimal portfolio based on historical data from 1984 – 2003 suggests a portfolio with 40 -60 % residential property, 30 – 60 % bonds and 0 – 10 % equities. This is with a risk free rate between 3 – 11 %. The debt ratio for this portfolio is determined by the investor’s risk-aversity and utility function.</p><p>The positive effects from diversification have to be compared to the increased scale effect from investing in more residential property when chosing new investment items. Investors can get a good diversification performance even with a few stakes. The main point in this thesis is that investors with residential property can get positive effects from diversification and the effects from diversification increase the more different the investments are.</p>

Univ., Diss (Nicht für den Austausch)--Bielefeld, 2006.

Humboldt-Univ., Diss.--Berlin, 2005.