The Influence of Foreign Investors on the Efficiency of the Saudi Stock Market
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/emaj.2024.330Keywords:
Saudi Stock Market, Market Efficiency, Non-parametric Testing, Market LiberalizationAbstract
This article examines whether the level of weak-form efficiency of the Saudi stock market increased following liberalization in June 2015 when the market was opened up to foreign institutional investors. The results revealed that most sample companies and the market index did not follow a random walk over the sample period. However, the random walk hypothesis was not rejected after opening the market to foreign investors. This evidence implies that the steps taken by policy-makers to liberalize the Saudi stock market appear to have had a positive impact on the level of market efficiency.
References
Abdmoulah, W. (2010). Testing the evolving efficiency of Arab stock markets. International Review of Financial Analysis, 19(1), 25-34.
Abraham, A., Seyyed, F. J. and Alsakran, S. A. (2002). Testing the Random Walk Behavior and Efficiency of the Gulf Stock Markets. Financial Review, 37(3), 469-480.
Al-Ajmi, J. and Kim, J.H. (2012). Are Gulf stock markets efficient? Evidence from new multiple variance ratio tests. Applied Economics, 44(14), 1737-1747.
Al-Khazali, O. M., Ding, D. K. and Pyun, C. S. (2007). A New Variance Ratio Test of Random Walk in Emerging Markets: A Revisit. Financial Review, 42(2), 303-317.
Albuquerque, R., Bauer, G. H. and Schneider, M. (2009). Global private information in international equity markets. Journal of Financial Economics, 94(1), 18-46.
Alkhazali, O. (2011). Does Infrequent Trading Make a Difference on Stock Market Efficiency? Evidence from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries. Studies in Economics and Finance, 28(2), 96-110.
Aye, G. C., Gil-Alana, L. A., Gupta, R. and Wohar, M. E. (2017). The efficiency of the art market: Evidence from variance ratio tests, linear and nonlinear fractional integration approaches. International Review of Economics & Finance, 51, 283-294.
Belaire-Franch, J. and Opong, K. K. (2005). A variance ratio test of the behaviour of some FTSE equity indices using ranks and signs. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, 24(1), 93-107.
Bley, J. (2011). Are GCC Stock Markets Predictable? Emerging Markets Review, 12(3), 217-237.
Butler, K.C. and Malaikah, S.J. (1992). Efficiency and Inefficiency in Thinly Traded Stock Markets: Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Journal of Banking & Finance, 16(1), 197-210.
Cajueiro, D. O., Gogas, P. and Tabak, B. M. (2009). Does Financial Market Liberalisation Increase the Degree of Market Efficiency? The Case of the Athens Stock Exchange. International Review of Financial Analysis, 18(1), 50-57.
Campbell, J. Y., Lo, A. W.-C. and MacKinlay, A. C. (1997). The Econometrics of Financial Markets, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Capital Market Authority (2015). Objectives of Opening the SMM for Foreign Investment, Available at: https://bit.ly/392AIwl [Accessed: 04 December 2017].
Charfeddine, L. and Khediri, K. B. (2016). Time Varying Market Efficiency of the GCC Stock Markets. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 444, 487-504.
Charles, A. and Darné, O. (2009). Variance‐ratio tests of random walk: an overview. Journal of Economic Surveys, 23(3), 503-527.
Fama, E. F. (1965). Tomorrow on the New York stock exchange. The Journal of Business, 38(3), 285-299.
Fifield, S. G. M. and Jetty, J. (2008). Further evidence on the efficiency of the Chinese stock markets: A note. Research in International Business and Finance, 22(3), 351-361.
Füss, R. (2005). Financial Liberalisation and Stock Price Behaviour in Asian Emerging Markets. Economic Change and Restructuring, 38(1), 37-62.
Graham, M., Peltomäki, J. and Sturludóttir, H. (2015). Do capital controls affect stock market efficiency? Lessons from Iceland. International Review of Financial Analysis, 41, 82-88.
Groenewold, N. and Ariff, M. (1998). The Effects of De-Regulation on Share-Market Efficiency in the Asia-Pacific. International Economic Journal, 12(4), 23-47.
Hong, H., Lim, T. and Stein, J. C. (2000). Bad news travels slowly: Size, analyst coverage, and the profitability of momentum strategies. The Journal of Finance, 55(1), 265-295.
Hull, M. and Mcgroarty, F. (2014). Do Emerging Markets Become More Efficient as They Develop? Long Memory Persistence in Equity Indices. Emerging Markets Review, 18, 45-61.
Hunter, D. M. (1998). The performance of filter rules on the Jamaican Stock Exchange. Applied Economics Letters, 5(5), 297-300.
Jamaani, F. and Roca, E. (2015). Are the Regional Gulf Stock Markets Weak-Form Efficient as Single Stock Markets and as a Regional Stock Market? Research in International Business and Finance, 33, 221-246.
Kawakatsu, H. and Morey, M. R. (1999). Financial Liberalisation and Stock Market Efficiency: An Empirical Examination of Nine Emerging Market Countries. Journal of Multinational Financial Management, 9(3), 353-371.
Kim, H. and Singal, V. (2000). The Fear of Globalizing Capital Markets. Emerging Markets Review, 1(3), 183-198.
Kim, J. H. and Shamsuddin, A. (2008). Are Asian Stock Markets Efficient? Evidence from New Multiple Variance Ratio Tests. Journal of Empirical Finance, 15(3), 518-532.
Kinninmont, J. (2017). Vision 2030 and Saudi Arabia’s Social Contract Austerity and Transformation. Chatham House [Online] Available at: https://bit.ly/335bNoh [Accessed: 03 December 2017].
Laopodis, N. T. (2004). Financial market liberalisation and stock market efficiency: Evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange. Global Finance Journal, 15(2), 103-123.
Lo, A. W. and Mackinlay, A. C. (1988). Stock Market Prices Do Not Follow Random Walks: Evidence from a Simple Specification Test. The Review of Financial Studies, 1(1), 41-66.
Lo, A. W. and Mackinlay, A. C. (1989). The Size and Power of the Variance Ratio Test in Finite Samples: A Monte Carlo Investigation. Journal of Econometrics, 40(2), 203-238.
Maghyereh, A. and Omet, G. (2002). Financial Liberalisation and Stock Market Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from an Emerging Market. African Finance Journal, 4(2), 24-35.
Mills, T. C. and Coutts, J. A. (1995). Calendar effects in the London Stock Exchange FT-SE indices. The European Journal of Finance, 1(1), 79-93.
Mobarek, A. and Fiorante, A. (2014). The Prospects of Bric Countries: Testing Weak-Form Market Efficiency. Research in International Business and Finance, 30, 217-232.
Naghavi, N., Mubarik, M. S. and Kaur, D. (2018). Financial liberalisation and stock market efficiency: Measuring the threshold effects of governance. Annals of Financial Economics, 13(04), 1-24.
Niemczak, K. and Smith, G. (2013). Middle Eastern stock markets: absolute, evolving and relative efficiency. Applied Financial Economics, 23(3), 181-198.
Oxford Business Group (2018). The Report: Saudi Arabia 2018. [Online] Available at: https://bit.ly/390zIc8 [Accessed: 17 October 2019].
Park, C. H. and Irwin, S. H. (2007). What Do We Know About the Profitability of Technical Analysis? Journal of Economic Surveys, 21(4), 786-826.
Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (2009). Forty-Fifth Annual Report, Riyadh: Research and Statistics Department.
Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (2017). Fifty-Third Annual Report, Riyadh: Economic Research Department.
Seif, M., Docherty, P. and Shamsuddin, A. (2017). Seasonal Anomalies in Advanced Emerging Stock Markets. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 66, 169-181.
Sharif, S. (2019). How foreign investors influence stock markets? The Saudi Arabian experience. Middle East Development Journal, 11(1), 105-123.
Tadawul (2021). Saudi Exchange [Online] Available at: https://bit.ly/378NWWj [Accessed: 11 February 2021].
Todea, A. and Pleşoianu, A. (2013). The influence of foreign portfolio investment on informational efficiency: Empirical evidence from Central and Eastern European stock markets. Economic Modelling, 33, 34-41.
ULICI, M.-L. and Nistor, I. A. (2011). Financial Liberalisation and Stock Market Efficiency. Finante-provocarile viitorului (Finance-Challenges of the Future), 1(13), 154-160.
Vo, X.V. (2019). Do foreign investors promote stock price efficiency in emerging markets? International Review of Finance, 19(1), 223-235.
Wright, J. H. (2000). Alternative variance-ratio tests using ranks and signs. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 18(1) 1-9.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Abdullah Alesmaiel, Suzanne Fifield, Justin Hof
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
- Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- the Work is the Author’s original work;
- the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- the Work has not previously been published;
- the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.