IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eco/journ1/2023-01-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Comparative Risk-adjusted Performance Evaluation of South African SRI Funds and the FTSE/JSE over the Covid-19 Period

Author

Listed:
  • Ruschelle Sgammini

    (School of Economic Sciences, North-West University, South Africa.)

Abstract

Socially responsible investing is a growing investment philosophy that has gained profound interest in both the local and international context. Socially conscious investors are seeking alternative ways to make more responsible investment choices, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. Although financial markets experienced a significant decrease owing to the pandemic, a more positive outcome was eminent by an increased demand in SRI products during this period. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of local SRI funds before, during and after the Covid-19 period. Comparatively evaluating the performance relative to the FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index and All Share Index, will assist investors (those with a heightened desire to invest responsibly) to establish if SRI funds were able to provide higher risk-adjusted returns than the comparable SRI and general equity markets. The results indicated that although larger returns were produced by SRI funds during the Covid-19 period and that significant differences were found relative to the two indices, SRI funds were not able to consistently outperform either index. Thus, socially conscious investors are likely to achieve higher risk-adjusted returns from the SRI index, although not receiving diversification benefits from investing in funds.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruschelle Sgammini, 2023. "A Comparative Risk-adjusted Performance Evaluation of South African SRI Funds and the FTSE/JSE over the Covid-19 Period," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 13(1), pages 46-55, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eco:journ1:2023-01-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/download/13717/7075
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/view/13717
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael C. Jensen, 1968. "The Performance Of Mutual Funds In The Period 1945–1964," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(2), pages 389-416, May.
    2. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "Socially responsible investments: Institutional aspects, performance, and investor behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1723-1742, September.
    3. Bauer, Rob & Koedijk, Kees & Otten, Roger, 2005. "International evidence on ethical mutual fund performance and investment style," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1751-1767, July.
    4. Giamporcaro, Stephanie & Pretorius, Lise & Visser, Martine, 2010. "Responsible Investment: A Vehicle for Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth in South Africa," RFF Working Paper Series dp-10-17-efd, Resources for the Future.
    5. Eling, Martin & Schuhmacher, Frank, 2007. "Does the choice of performance measure influence the evaluation of hedge funds?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2632-2647, September.
    6. Ballestero, Enrique & Bravo, Mila & Pérez-Gladish, Blanca & Arenas-Parra, Mar & Plà-Santamaria, David, 2012. "Socially Responsible Investment: A multicriteria approach to portfolio selection combining ethical and financial objectives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 216(2), pages 487-494.
    7. Donald Lien, 2002. "A note on the relationships between some risk‐adjusted performance measures," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(5), pages 483-495, May.
    8. Soumya Guha Deb, 2012. "Value Versus Growth: Evidence from India," The IUP Journal of Applied Finance, IUP Publications, vol. 18(2), pages 48-62, April.
    9. Karen Heese, 2005. "The development of socially responsible investment in South Africa: experience and evolution of SRI in global markets," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 729-739.
    10. Lintner, John, 1969. "The Valuation of Risk Assets and the Selection of Risky Investments in Stock Portfolios and Capital Budgets: A Reply," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(2), pages 222-224, May.
    11. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    12. Black, Fischer, 1972. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Restricted Borrowing," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(3), pages 444-455, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Łukasz Dopierała & Magdalena Mosionek-Schweda & Daria Ilczuk, 2020. "Does the Asset Allocation Policy Affect the Performance of Climate-Themed Funds? Empirical Evidence from the Scandinavian Mutual Funds Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Laura Fabregat-Aibar & M. Glòria Barberà-Mariné & Antonio Terceño & Laia Pié, 2019. "A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of Socially Responsible Funds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Amelia Bilbao-Terol & Mar Arenas-Parra & Verónica Cañal-Fernández & Celia Bilbao-Terol, 2016. "Multi-criteria decision making for choosing socially responsible investment within a behavioral portfolio theory framework: a new way of investing into a crisis environment," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 247(2), pages 549-580, December.
    4. Calvo, Clara & Ivorra, Carlos & Liern, Vicente, 2015. "Finding socially responsible portfolios close to conventional ones," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 52-63.
    5. Hany Shawky & Ronald Forbes & Alan Frankle, 1983. "Liquidity Services and Capital Market Equilibrium: The Case for Money Market Mutual Funds," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 6(2), pages 141-152, June.
    6. Pirgaip, Burak & Arslan-Ayaydin, Özgür & Karan, Mehmet Baha, 2021. "Do Sukuk provide diversification benefits to conventional bond investors? Evidence from Turkey," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    7. Bao, Te & Diks, Cees & Li, Hao, 2018. "A generalized CAPM model with asymmetric power distributed errors with an application to portfolio construction," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 611-621.
    8. Hirschberger, Markus & Steuer, Ralph E. & Utz, Sebastian & Wimmer, Maximilian, 2012. "Is socially responsible investing just screening? Evidence from mutual funds," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2012-025, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    9. Bastien Drut, 2010. "Sovereign Bonds and Socially Responsible Investment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(1), pages 131-145, April.
    10. Alena Kocmanová & Marie Pavláková Dočekalová & Tomáš Meluzín & Stanislav Škapa, 2020. "Sustainable Investing Model for Decision Makers (Based On Research of Manufacturing Industry in the Czech Republic)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-27, October.
    11. Costanza Torricelli & Beatrice Bertelli, 2022. "ESG screening strategies and portfolio performance: how do they fare in periods of financial distress?," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0087, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    12. Mohammad Najand & John Griffith & David C Marlett, 2007. "Do life insurance stocks provide superior returns?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 52-57, May.
    13. Sebastian Lobe & Christian Walkshäusl, 2016. "Vice versus virtue investing around the world," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 303-344, March.
    14. Muñoz, Fernando, 2016. "Cash flow timing skills of socially responsible mutual fund investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 110-124.
    15. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    16. Xiao-Guang Yue & Yan Han & Deimante Teresiene & Justina Merkyte & Wei Liu, 2020. "Sustainable Funds’ Performance Evaluation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-20, September.
    17. Yang, Fan & Havranek, Tomas & Irsova, Zuzana & Novak, Jiri, 2022. "Hedge Fund Performance: A Quantitative Survey," EconStor Preprints 260612, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    18. Belghitar, Yacine & Clark, Ephraim & Deshmukh, Nitin, 2014. "Does it pay to be ethical? Evidence from the FTSE4Good," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 54-62.
    19. Oberndorfer, Ulrich & Schmidt, Peter & Wagner, Marcus & Ziegler, Andreas, 2013. "Does the stock market value the inclusion in a sustainability stock index? An event study analysis for German firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 497-509.
    20. Attiya Yasmeen Javid, 2000. "Alternative Capital Asset Pricing Models: A Review of Theory and Evidence," PIDE Research Report 2000:3, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    South African SRI funds; SRI strategies; Risk-adjusted performance; Covid-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eco:journ1:2023-01-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ilhan Ozturk (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.econjournals.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.