IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mfa/journl/v29y2021i2p1-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stock Market Reaction to Political Regime Change in Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Fareiny Morni

    (Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.)

  • Erimalida Yazi

    (Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.)

Abstract

Research Question: How does a change in the ruling party impact the value of actively traded stocks in Malaysia? Motivation: The 2018 general election results is a never seen before phenomenon that can be classified as a political risk that affects the value of actively traded stocks in the Malaysian stock market. Idea: This study aims to investigate the impact of a change in government on share price and length of time needed for market adjustment. Data: The sample is based on 656 listed stocks on 9th May 2018 which was the election date in Malaysia. Data is obtained from Thomson Reuters Datastream. Method/Tools: Event methodology is used to identify abnormal returns (AR) and cumulative average abnormal returns (CAAR) as a measure on the impact of the election on stock prices. AR is averaged across firms to minimize other event effects, thus providing a better measure of the effect of the announcement event. The CAAR represent the average total effect of the event across all firms. Findings: This paper provide evidence that a significant political announcement such as election results which is followed by a government change would affect the value of actively traded stocks. The impact is found to be significantly positive CAAR on the selected event windows for both pre and post-event day. This study also finds 67 active trading days is insufficient for the market to recover from a political regime change as the stock market appears to be experiencing volatility during the observation period. Contributions: This study is different from other studies in two ways: (1) To our knowledge, there is no study that has yet to investigate the impact of a change in the ruling government on the Malaysian stock market; and (2) This study uses event methodology which would neatly capture specific political events such as dissolution of parliament, election results and delivery of 10 key promises by the newly elected ruling coalition and provide insight of not only the impact a change in ruling party but also immediate reforms made by the new government on the stock market.

Suggested Citation

  • Fareiny Morni & Erimalida Yazi, 2021. "Stock Market Reaction to Political Regime Change in Malaysia," Capital Markets Review, Malaysian Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 1-11.
    • Handle: RePEc:mfa:journl:v:29:y:2021:i:2:p:1-11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mfa.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/v29_i2_a1_pg1-11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pantzalis, Christos & Stangeland, David A. & Turtle, Harry J., 2000. "Political elections and the resolution of uncertainty: The international evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 1575-1604, October.
    2. Brown, Keith C. & Harlow, W. V. & Tinic, Seha M., 1988. "Risk aversion, uncertain information, and market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 355-385, December.
    3. Liew, Venus Khim-Sen & Rowland, Racquel, 2016. "The effect of Malaysia general election on stock market returns," MPRA Paper 107982, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Lubos Pástor & Pietro Veronesi, 2012. "Uncertainty about Government Policy and Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1219-1264, August.
    5. Brown, Keith C. & Harlow, W. V. & Tinic, Seha M., 1993. "The Risk and Required Return of Common Stock following Major Price Innovations," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 101-116, March.
    6. Armitage, Seth, 1995. "Event Study Methods and Evidence on Their Performance," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 25-52, March.
    7. Binder, John J, 1998. "The Event Study Methodology since 1969," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 111-137, September.
    8. Lubos Pástor & Pietro Veronesi, 2012. "Uncertainty about Government Policy and Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1219-1264, August.
    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. Leticia Castaño & José E. Farinós & Ana M. Ibáñez, 2024. "The stock market reaction to political and economic changes: the Spanish case," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 28(3), pages 593-630, September.
    2. Pham, Huy Nguyen Anh & Ramiah, Vikash & Moosa, Nisreen & Huynh, Tam & Pham, Nhi, 2018. "The financial effects of Trumpism," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 264-274.
    3. Jamal Bouoiyour & Refk Selmi, 2016. "The Price of Political Uncertainty: Evidence from the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and the U.S. Stock Markets," Papers 1612.06200, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2017.
    4. Refk Selmi & Jamal Bouoiyour, 2020. "The financial costs of political uncertainty: Evidence from the 2016 US presidential elections," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 67(2), pages 166-185, May.
    5. Styliani Panetsidou & Angelos Synapis & Ioannis Tsalavoutas, 2022. "Price run-ups and insider trading laws under different regulatory environments," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 601-639, August.
    6. Jamal Bouoiyour, Refk Selmi, 2018. "Are UK industries resilient in dealing with uncertainty? The case of Brexit," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 15(2), pages 277-292, December.
    7. Tihana Škrinjarić, 2021. "Profiting on the Stock Market in Pandemic Times: Study of COVID-19 Effects on CESEE Stock Markets," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(17), pages 1-20, August.
    8. Mnasri, Ayman & Essaddam, Naceur, 2021. "Impact of U.S. presidential elections on stock markets’ volatility: Does incumbent president's party matter?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    9. Christoph Moser & Axel Dreher, 2010. "Do Markets Care about Central Bank Governor Changes? Evidence from Emerging Markets," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(8), pages 1589-1612, December.
    10. Haddou, Samira, 2024. "Determinants of CDS in core and peripheral European countries: A comparative study during crisis and calm periods," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Gabriela-Victoria Anghelache & Stela Jakova & Dumitru-Cristian Oanea, 2016. "Fiscal Policy and Capital Market Performance: Evidence from EU Countries from Central and Eastern Europe," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 6(2), pages 34-43, April.
    12. Huang, Tao & Wu, Fei & Yu, Jing & Zhang, Bohui, 2015. "International political risk and government bond pricing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 393-405.
    13. Shaikh, Imlak, 2017. "The 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Stock, FX and VIX markets," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 546-563.
    14. Pástor, Ľuboš & Veronesi, Pietro, 2013. "Political uncertainty and risk premia," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 520-545.
    15. David M. Goldberg & Jason K. Deane & Terry R. Rakes & Loren Paul Rees, 2022. "3D Printing Technology and the Market Value of the Firm," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1379-1392, August.
    16. Hudson, Robert S. & Gregoriou, Andros, 2015. "Calculating and comparing security returns is harder than you think: A comparison between logarithmic and simple returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 151-162.
    17. Omer Ahmed Sayed & Hussein Eledum, 2023. "The short‐run response of Saudi Arabia stock market to the outbreak of COVID‐19 pandemic: An event‐study methodology," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2367-2381, July.
    18. Liu, Jiapeng & Tao, Qizhi & Hou, Wenxuan & Zhang, Ting, 2016. "Systematic risk, government policy intervention, and dynamic contrarian investments," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 334-343.
    19. Delia DiaconaÅŸu & Seyed Mehdian & Ovidiu Stoica, 2023. "The Global Stock Market Reactions to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    20. Marcelin, Isaac & Stephen, Sheryl-Ann K. & Fanta, Fassil & Tecklezion, Mussie, 2019. "Political regimes, investment and electoral uncertainty," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 580-599.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bursa Malaysia; efficient market hypothesis; event study; political risk; Malaysia 2018 general election;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General

    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:mfa:journl:v:29:y:2021:i:2:p:1-11. 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: Capital Market Review (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.