IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecofin/v36y2016icp1-28.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign investors and stock price efficiency: Thresholds, underlying channels and investor heterogeneity

Author

Listed:
  • Lim, Kian-Ping
  • Hooy, Chee-Wooi
  • Chang, Kwok-Boon
  • Brooks, Robert

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between foreign shareholding and stock price efficiency for Malaysian public listed firms over the 2002–2009 sample period. We use stock price delay as an inverse measure of price efficiency, and consider the speed of adjustment to local and global common factor information. The results show that foreign investors accelerate the incorporation of both types of common information into the prices of Malaysian stocks, mainly due to their superior skills in processing systematic market-wide factors. However, we find evidence of optimality in foreign shareholding, suggesting that the efficiency benefit disappears after foreign ownership exceeds a certain threshold level. Further analyses shed lights on the channels and moderating variables driving this non-monotonic relationship. Our disaggregate analysis on foreign investor heterogeneity shows that foreign investors who trade through nominee accounts are elite processors of public market-wide and firm-specific news in the Malaysian stock market.

Suggested Citation

  • Lim, Kian-Ping & Hooy, Chee-Wooi & Chang, Kwok-Boon & Brooks, Robert, 2016. "Foreign investors and stock price efficiency: Thresholds, underlying channels and investor heterogeneity," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-28.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:36:y:2016:i:c:p:1-28
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2015.11.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062940815001230
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.najef.2015.11.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Woochan & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2002. "Foreign portfolio investors before and during a crisis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 77-96, January.
    2. Phillips, Blake, 2011. "Options, short-sale constraints and market efficiency: A new perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 430-442, February.
    3. Chordia, Tarun & Roll, Richard & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2008. "Liquidity and market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 249-268, February.
    4. Young K. Park & Kee H. Chung, 2007. "Foreign and Local Institutional Ownership and the Speed of Price Adjustment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(9-10), pages 1569-1595.
    5. Peng, Lin & Xiong, Wei, 2006. "Investor attention, overconfidence and category learning," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 563-602, June.
    6. Albuquerque, Rui & H. Bauer, Gregory & Schneider, Martin, 2009. "Global private information in international equity markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 18-46, October.
    7. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    8. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    9. Bailey, Warren & Mao, Connie X. & Sirodom, Kulpatra, 2007. "Investment restrictions and the cross-border flow of information: Some empirical evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-25, February.
    10. Tarun Chordia & Bhaskaran Swaminathan, 2000. "Trading Volume and Cross‐Autocorrelations in Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 913-935, April.
    11. Kewei Hou & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2005. "Market Frictions, Price Delay, and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 981-1020.
    12. Easley, David & O'Hara, Maureen, 1987. "Price, trade size, and information in securities markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 69-90, September.
    13. Vicentiu Covrig & Sie Ting Lau & Lilian Ng, 2006. "Do domestic and foreign fund managers have similar preferences for stock characteristics? A cross-country analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(3), pages 407-429, May.
    14. Xing, Xuejing & Anderson, Randy, 2011. "Stock price synchronicity and public firm-specificinformation," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 259-276, May.
    15. Engelberg, Joseph E. & Reed, Adam V. & Ringgenberg, Matthew C., 2012. "How are shorts informed?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(2), pages 260-278.
    16. Lesmond, David A., 2005. "Liquidity of emerging markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 411-452, August.
    17. Bardong, Florian & Bartram, Söhnke M. & Yadav, Pradeep K., 2005. "Informed Trading, Information Asymmetry and Pricing of Information Risk: Empirical Evidence from the NYSE," MPRA Paper 13586, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Oct 2008.
    18. Alex Edmans, 2009. "Blockholder Trading, Market Efficiency, and Managerial Myopia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(6), pages 2481-2513, December.
    19. Alex Edmans & Gustavo Manso, 2011. "Governance Through Trading and Intervention: A Theory of Multiple Blockholders," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(7), pages 2395-2428.
    20. Badrinath, S G & Kale, Jayant R & Noe, Thomas H, 1995. "Of Shepherds, Sheep, and the Cross-autocorrelations in Equity Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(2), pages 401-430.
    21. Pedro A. C. Saffi & Kari Sigurdsson, 2011. "Price Efficiency and Short Selling," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(3), pages 821-852.
    22. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    23. Bae, Kee-Hong & Ozoguz, Arzu & Tan, Hongping & Wirjanto, Tony S., 2012. "Do foreigners facilitate information transmission in emerging markets?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 209-227.
    24. John M. Griffin & Patrick J. Kelly & Federico Nardari, 2010. "Do Market Efficiency Measures Yield Correct Inferences? A Comparison of Developed and Emerging Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(8), pages 3225-3277, August.
    25. Lo, Andrew W & MacKinlay, A Craig, 1990. "When Are Contrarian Profits Due to Stock Market Overreaction?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(2), pages 175-205.
    26. Lim, Kian-Ping & Brooks, Robert D., 2010. "Why Do Emerging Stock Markets Experience More Persistent Price Deviations From A Random Walk Over Time? A Country-Level Analysis," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(S1), pages 3-41, May.
    27. He, Wen & Li, Donghui & Shen, Jianfeng & Zhang, Bohui, 2013. "Large foreign ownership and stock price informativeness around the world," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 211-230.
    28. Merton, Robert C, 1987. "A Simple Model of Capital Market Equilibrium with Incomplete Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(3), pages 483-510, July.
    29. Spiegel, Matthew & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1992. "Informed Speculation and Hedging in a Noncompetitive Securities Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(2), pages 307-329.
    30. Menon , Jayant & Ng, Thiam Hee, 2013. "Are Government-Linked Corporations Crowding out Private Investment in Malaysia?," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 345, Asian Development Bank.
    31. Jo Thori Lind & Halvor Mehlum, 2010. "With or Without U? The Appropriate Test for a U‐Shaped Relationship," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(1), pages 109-118, February.
    32. Stefano Dellavigna & Joshua M. Pollet, 2009. "Investor Inattention and Friday Earnings Announcements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 709-749, April.
    33. Jeffrey L. Callen & Mozaffar Khan & Hai Lu, 2013. "Accounting Quality, Stock Price Delay, and Future Stock Returns," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 269-295, March.
    34. Glosten, Lawrence R. & Milgrom, Paul R., 1985. "Bid, ask and transaction prices in a specialist market with heterogeneously informed traders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 71-100, March.
    35. Agarwal, Sumit & Faircloth, Sheri & Liu, Chunlin & Ghon Rhee, S., 2009. "Why do foreign investors underperform domestic investors in trading activities? Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 32-53, February.
    36. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Qiu, Annie A., 2010. "Ownership concentration, foreign shareholding, audit quality, and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 425-442, March.
    37. Philip Bond & Alex Edmans & Itay Goldstein, 2012. "The Real Effects of Financial Markets," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 339-360, October.
    38. Nuno Fernandes & Miguel A. Ferreira, 2009. "Insider Trading Laws and Stock Price Informativeness," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1845-1887, May.
    39. David Roodman, 2009. "A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 135-158, February.
    40. Mech, Timothy S., 1993. "Portfolio return autocorrelation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 307-344, December.
    41. repec:bla:ecnote:v:33:y:2004:i:1:p:145-181 is not listed on IDEAS
    42. Kale, Jayant R. & Loon, Yee Cheng, 2011. "Product market power and stock market liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 376-410, May.
    43. Ekkehart Boehmer & Juan (Julie) Wu, 2013. "Short Selling and the Price Discovery Process," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(2), pages 287-322.
    44. Brennan, Michael J & Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Swaminathan, Bhaskaran, 1993. "Investment Analysis and the Adjustment of Stock Prices to Common Information," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(4), pages 799-824.
    45. Bailey, Warren & Jagtiani, Julapa, 1994. "Foreign ownership restrictions and stock prices in the Thai capital market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 57-87, August.
    46. Chan, Kalok & Hameed, Allaudeen, 2006. "Stock price synchronicity and analyst coverage in emerging markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 115-147, April.
    47. Young K. Park & Kee H. Chung, 2007. "Foreign and Local Institutional Ownership and the Speed of Price Adjustment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(9‐10), pages 1569-1595, November.
    48. Wintoki, M. Babajide & Linck, James S. & Netter, Jeffry M., 2012. "Endogeneity and the dynamics of internal corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 581-606.
    49. Ekkehart Boehmer & Eric K. Kelley, 2009. "Institutional Investors and the Informational Efficiency of Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3563-3594, September.
    50. Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1991. "Risk Aversion, Market Liquidity, and Price Efficiency," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(3), pages 416-441.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Teck-Lee Wong & Wee-Yeap Lau & Tien-Ming Yip, 2020. "Cashless Payments and Economic Growth: Evidence from Selected OECD Countries," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 9(special i), pages 189-213.
    2. Park, Keun Woo & Jeong, Seong Hoon & Oh, Ji Yeol Jimmy, 2019. "Foreigners at the gate? Foreign investor trading and the disposition effect of domestic individual investors," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 165-180.
    3. Guo, Xu & McAleer, Michael & Wong, Wing-Keung & Zhu, Lixing, 2017. "A Bayesian approach to excess volatility, short-term underreaction and long-term overreaction during financial crises," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 346-358.
    4. Liu, Jian-Guo & Yang, Zhen-Hua & Li, Sheng-Nan & Yu, Chang-Rui, 2018. "A generative model for the collective attention of the Chinese stock market investors," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 512(C), pages 1175-1182.
    5. Huang, Zhi-xiong & Tang, Qi & Huang, Siming, 2020. "Foreign investors and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 210-223.
    6. Iwatsubo, Kentaro & Watkins, Clinton, 2021. "The changing role of foreign investors in Tokyo stock price formation," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Zhen-Hua Yang & Jian-Guo Liu & Chang-Rui Yu & Jing-Ti Han, 2017. "Quantifying the effect of investors’ attention on stock market," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, May.
    8. Chia, Yee-Ee & Lim, Kian-Ping & Goh, Kim-Leng, 2020. "More shareholders, higher liquidity? Evidence from an emerging stock market," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    9. Song, Siwen & Jun, Aelee & Luo, Tianpei & Ma, Shiguang, 2024. "Political legitimacy and CSR reporting: Evidence from non-SOEs in China," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    10. Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2017. "Trading of foreign investors and stock returns in an emerging market - Evidence from Vietnam," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 88-93.
    11. Nicholas Addai Boamah, 2021. "Integration, investor protection rules and global informational inefficiency of emerging financial markets," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(6), pages 1-22, June.
    12. Areneke, Geofry & Adegbite, Emmanuel & Tunyi, Abongeh, 2022. "Transfer of corporate governance practices into weak emerging market environments by foreign institutional investors," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5).
    13. Lim, Kian-Ping & Thian, Tze-Chung & Hooy, Chee-Wooi, 2017. "Investor heterogeneity, trading account types and competing liquidity channels for Malaysian stocks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 220-234.
    14. Liew, Ping-Xin & Lim, Kian-Ping & Goh, Kim-Leng, 2018. "Foreign equity flows: Boon or bane to the liquidity of Malaysian stock market?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 161-181.
    15. Cesario Mateus & Bao Trung Hoang, 2021. "Frontier Markets, Liberalization and Informational Efficiency: Evidence from Vietnam," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 28(4), pages 499-526, December.
    16. Chia, Yee-Ee & Lim, Kian-Ping & Goh, Kim-Leng, 2020. "Liquidity and firm value in an emerging market: Nonlinearity, political connections and corporate ownership," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    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. Chia, Yee-Ee & Lim, Kian-Ping & Goh, Kim-Leng, 2020. "More shareholders, higher liquidity? Evidence from an emerging stock market," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    2. Chia, Yee-Ee & Lim, Kian-Ping & Goh, Kim-Leng, 2020. "Liquidity and firm value in an emerging market: Nonlinearity, political connections and corporate ownership," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    3. Yijie Li & Jianghui Liu & Haizhi Wang & Peng Wang, 2021. "Stock market liberalization, foreign institutional investors, and informational efficiency of stock prices: Evidence from an emerging market," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 5451-5471, October.
    4. Lim, Kian-Ping & Thian, Tze-Chung & Hooy, Chee-Wooi, 2015. "Corporate Shareholdings and the Liquidity of Malaysian Stocks: Investor Heterogeneity, Trading Account Types and the Underlying Channels," MPRA Paper 67602, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Pereira da Silva, Paulo, 2021. "Do managers pay attention to the market? A review of the relationship between stock price informativeness and investment," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    6. Lin, Mei-Chen & Wu, Chu-Hua & Chiang, Ming-Ti, 2014. "Investor attention and information diffusion from analyst coverage," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 235-246.
    7. Jagjeev Dosanjh, 2017. "Exchange Initiatives and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the Australian Securities Exchange," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 1-2017, January-A.
    8. repec:uts:finphd:34 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Arjoon, Vaalmikki & Bougheas, Spiros & Milner, Chris, 2016. "Lead-lag relationships in an embryonic stock market: Exploring the role of institutional ownership and liquidity," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 262-276.
    10. Bae, Kee-Hong & Ozoguz, Arzu & Tan, Hongping & Wirjanto, Tony S., 2012. "Do foreigners facilitate information transmission in emerging markets?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 209-227.
    11. Joachim Gassen & Hollis A. Skaife & David Veenman, 2020. "Illiquidity and the Measurement of Stock Price Synchronicity," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 419-456, March.
    12. Liew, Ping-Xin & Lim, Kian-Ping & Goh, Kim-Leng, 2018. "Foreign equity flows: Boon or bane to the liquidity of Malaysian stock market?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 161-181.
    13. Bohl, Martin T. & Irwin, Scott H. & Pütz, Alexander & Sulewski, Christoph, 2023. "The impact of financialization on the efficiency of commodity futures markets," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    14. Suan Poh & Chee wooi Hooy & Kian-ping Lim, 2017. "Effect of Geographical Diversification on Informational Efficiency in Malaysia," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(1), pages 19-29.
    15. Lim, Kian-Ping & Thian, Tze-Chung & Hooy, Chee-Wooi, 2017. "Investor heterogeneity, trading account types and competing liquidity channels for Malaysian stocks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 220-234.
    16. Hu, Ting & Chi, Yanzhe, 2019. "Can short selling activity predict the future returns of non-shortable peer firms?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 165-185.
    17. Hsin, Chin-Wen & Peng, Shu-Cing, 2023. "Investor propensity to speculate and price delay in emerging markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Ben-Nasr, Hamdi & Cosset, Jean-Claude, 2014. "State Ownership, Political Institutions, and Stock Price Informativeness: Evidence from Privatization," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 179-199.
    19. Yan Meng & Lingyun Xiong & Lijuan Xiao & Min Bai, 2023. "The effect of overseas investors on local market efficiency: evidence from the Shanghai/Shenzhen–Hong Kong Stock Connect," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, December.
    20. Pham, Mia Hang, 2020. "In law we trust: Lawyer CEOs and stock liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    21. Hsin, Chin-Wen & Peng, Shu-Cing, 2023. "The role of social capital in price efficiency: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial liberalisation; Foreign investors; Price efficiency; Thresholds; Investor heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:eee:ecofin:v:36:y:2016:i:c:p:1-28. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620163 .

    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.