UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ NGUYEN HOANG MINH TRI THE RELATION BETWEEN STOCK PRICE VOLATILITY AND FIRM CHARACTERISTICS OF VIETNAMESE LISTED FIRMS ON HO CHI MINH CITY STOCK EXCHANGE MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) Ho Chi Minh City - 2014 1 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ NGUYEN HOANG MINH TRI THE RELATION BETWEEN STOCK PRICE VOLATILITY AND FIRM CHARACTERISTICS OF VIETNAMESE LISTED FIRMS ON HO CHI MINH CITY STOCK EXCHANGE ID: 22110071 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: Dr. PHAM PHU QUOC Ho Chi Minh City – 2014 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Pham Phu Quoc, my supervisor who has given highly support and valuable advices during the process of my conducting the research. Especially, I am grateful for his enthusiasm in answering, reminding as well as his feedback, guidance and correction thank to that I can able to accomplish this thesis.
Second, I would like to thank Prof. Sarath Delpachitra of Flinders University Australia and invited lecturer at International School of Business (ISB) – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) for his review and revision my thesis. Third, I would like to express profound gratitude to Dr.Dinh Thai Hoang who taught me the methodology of data analysis, and give me guidance in data analysis of this thesis as well. Next, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of my lecturers at International School of Business (ISB) – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) who have transmitted their knowledge and experience to me during my master course.
Furthermore, the enthusiastic assistance of the ISB’s executive board and staffs was greatly appreciated. Last but not least, I would also want to thank my friends and classmates who have shared their knowledge, supported, and worked with me during the i time of my studying at ISB. Without their continual encouragement and understanding, I would not have been able to complete this journey. It is very fortunate for me to have such wonderful friends and supporters in my life.
With my appreciation Nguyen Hoang Minh Tri ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and except where due reference is made; this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person(s). This thesis does not contain material extracted in whole or in part from a thesis or report presented for another degree or diploma at University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH), International School of Business (ISB), or any other education institution. Nguyen Hoang Minh Tri May 2014 iii ABSTRACT This paper attempts to determine stock price volatility in the Vietnamese stock market using a rich and detailed data set, including both market data and firm characteristics. In particular, this research aim to investigate whether firm’s characteristics affect stock price volatility and examines the relation between stock price volatility and firm characteristics of Vietnamese listed firms on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.
A sample of 110 listed companies in Vietnam stock market is examined for a period from 2008 to 2012. The empirical estimation is based on panel data modeling technique. The findings of the paper indicate that stock price volatility is negative affected by firm leverage, positively influenced by asset growth rate and firm size firm. Meanwhile, this study find out that dividend yield and dividend pay-out ratio insignificant to the stock price volatility in Vietnam stock market Keywords: Stock price volatility, firm characteristics, Vietnam stock market, panel data iv Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. viii LIST OF TABLES. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION. Research objectives and research questions.
Structure of the thesis. 7 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW. Stock price volatility. Stock price volatility and dividend policy.
Stock price volatility and firm age. Stock price volatility and trading liquidity. Other firm’s characteristics and stock price volatility. Developing empirical research hypotheses.
Dividend yield and dividend payout ratio. Asset growth rate. 24 CHAPTER 3 DATA AND METHODOLOGY. Dependent variable -Price volatility (PV).
Independent variables -Firm characteristics. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression. 30 CHAPTER 4 EMPIRICAL RESULTS. Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Analysis.
Correlation Analysis amongst Variables. Multiple Linear Regressions Analysis. Reviews of findings. Limitations and recommendations for future researches.
47 APPENDIX A: LIST OF SAMPLE COMPANIES. 54 APPENDIX B REGRESSION RESULT. 57 vii ABBREVIATION AGE Firm age ASGR Asset growth rate CURR Current ratio DY Dividend yield EBIT Earnings Before Interest and Tax EV Earning volatility HNX Hanoi Stock Exchange HOSE Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange IPO Initial Public Offer LEVR Firm leverage OLS Ordinary Least Square POR Payout ratio PV Price volatility ROA Return on assets ROE Return on equity SIZE Firm size TOVR Liquidity viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Expected relation to stock price volatility. 41 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.
Introduction Stock prices are the most important indicators used by investors to invest or not to invest on a particular share. The main objective of investing in the stock market is to maximize the expected return at low level of risk. The volatility of stock price is the systemic risk faced by investors who possess ordinary shares investment. Investors are by nature risk averse, and the volatility of their investments is of importance to them because it is a measure of the level of risk they are exposed to (Hussainey,2011).
Therefore, the stock price volatility gets investors’ undivided attention. Furthermore, stock market growth plays an important role in predicating future economic growth in situations where the stock markets are active. Economies without well-functioning stock markets may suffer from three types of imperfections. First, opportunities for risk diversification are limited for investors and entrepreneurs.
Second, firms are unable to structure optimally their financing packages. Third, countries without well-functioning markets lack information about the prospects of firms whose shares are traded, thereby restricting the promotion of investment and its’ efficiency (Demirguc-Kunt and Levine, 1996). Since the important role of the stock market plays in promoting the economic growth, any change in the stock market always draws attention of the 1 public and the society. As an emerging market, the Vietnamese Stock Market is expected to lead to a lower cost of equity capital for firms and allow individuals to more effectively price and hedge risk, and a place where can attract foreign portfolio capital and increase domestic resource mobilization, expanding the resources available for investment to develop the country.
However, what has been happening on the Vietnamese Stock Market shows an unstableness of the Vietnamese economics. During the period from 2008 to 2012, the Vietnamese Stock Index (VN-INDEX) changed so much. The VN-INDEX reached the highest point of 921.10 on January 2nd 2008, and then falling to the lowest point of 235.50 on February 24th 2009 just in around one year. On the last transaction day of the year 2012 the VN-INDEX gained 413.
As a result, stock price volatility in Vietnamese recent years becomes a topic attracting not only investors but also firm’s managers and the government. Therefore, determining factors affect the stock price volatility is significant. This thesis examines the effects of some firm’s characteristics on stock price volatility in the context of Vietnam such as dividend yield, payout ratio, leverage ratio, asset growth rate, and firm size. The findings of the study provides implications for investors in building up their investment portfolio, for managers in firm management, and for law maker in giving out laws and regulations as the solution to stable and to develop the Vietnamese Stock Market.
2 Finally, the remainder of this chapter is structured as follows: section 1.2 provides the research background, section 1.3 discusses the research objectives and the research questions, section 1.4 presents the scope of the research, section 1.5 is the thesis contributions, and section 1.6 is the structure of the thesis. Research background For many decades, stock price volatility and its determinants have been controversial topic of theoretical and empirical researches. Investigations of share price changes appear to have presented evidences that change in fundamental variables should jointly influence changes in share prices in both developed and developing markets. However, the relevant actual fundamental factors may vary between markets.
It is widely agreed that a set of fundamental variables as suggested by literature has been relevant as possible factors affecting share price changes in the short and the long run. Actually, there is a huge amount of researches has been conducted to analyze the relation between stock price volatility and firm characteristics. Among those researches investigated developed market, it can point out some empirical findings such as Baskin (1989), Fama and French (1992), Pastor and Veronesi (2003) in the United States context, Allen and Rachim (1996) in Australian context, Hussainey, Mgbame, and Chijoke-Mgbame (2011) showed evidence from United Kingdom. While Baskin (1989) reported a strongly significant relation between dividend yield and stock price volatility, Allen and Rachim (1996) could not find any evidence to support this hypothesis 3 but found another interesting results related to payout ratio.
Even though Vietnam initiates the stock market later than many other developed countries, there has been a substantial growth. The first stock exchange in Ho Chi Minh City was established in 2000 with only two listed companies, then by increasing foreign interest and the privatization of state- owned enterprises lead to a rapid increase in listings. At the end of 2012, there were about 315 firms listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) and 399 other firms on Hanoi stock exchange (HNX). At the end of Jan 2013, there were two more firms jointed in HNX.
Most of the previous studies on determinants of stock return volatility focus on well-developed markets such as Baskin (1989), Gallant, et al.,(1992), Pastor and Veronesi (2003) in the context of United States, Allen and Rachim(1996) studied factors affected stock price volatility in Australia, Hussainey et al.,(2010) found evidence from London Stock Exchange of UK. In the other hand, there is a less attention given to the developing markets. Ramadan (2013) examined determinants affected stock price volatilities in Jordan, Irfan and Nishat (2003), Khan (2011) attempted to explain the effect of dividend policy on stock price of listed companied at Karachi Stock Exchange in Pakistan, Hashemijoo, Ardekani and Younesi (2012) investigated the impact of firm attribute on share price volatilities in the Malaysian Stock Market. Whereas, there is no or a few study address the issue of stock price volatility and fundamental factors in the Vietnamese context.
This motivates the present 4 study to examine whether firm’s characteristics can affect the stock price volatility of the Vietnamese companies and to analyze their influence. This study focuses on the same issue for Vietnam Stock market, as a developing Asian capital market. Apart from using the latest data, the research will incorporate selected variables to examine the determinants of stock price volatility. Research objectives and research questions The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the behavior of stock price from a broad perspective and to determine the relations between stock price volatility and firm characteristics.
This research also examines stock price behavior in each year in order to identify whether there is any annual differences in stock price movement. This research will provide answer to the following question: Do firm’s characteristics affect firm’s stock price volatility in Vietnam stock market? 1. Research scope There are psychological factors contributed to the price changes or volatility such as investor’s overreactions to earnings, dividends, or other news; waves of social optimism or pessimism; fashions or fads (Shiller, 1987). According to the efficient market hypothesis, when new information either good or bad news are available to the public, they will effect and change the company’s share price.