Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the share price volatility of Mediterranean banks and their dividend policies, with particular emphasis on the variation of results across sub-samples and the outcomes when omitting outlier observations. Design/methodology/approach The authors use dividend yield and dividend payout as proxies of dividend policy, and regress these ratios together with other control variables to model volatility. The robustness of the results is assessed by re-using a data set which omits the outliers relating to the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis and by forming sub-samples using cluster analysis. Findings The results show that the elimination of outliers and the setting up of sub-samples lead to different inferences about the underlying relationship between dividend policy and volatility. In addition traditional indicators of statistical significance may give the impression of a robust relationship, when this may not be the case. Practical implications The paper offers insights to stock traders and corporate managers in terms of better understanding the effect of dividend policies on share price volatility and its related risks and opportunities. Originality/value The study presents noteworthy empirical evidence in terms of its rigorous approach towards checking the robustness of results.

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This study examines the connections between stock prices and key macroeconomic indicators: inflation, industrial production, interest rates, money supply and select interactions between the latter group of variables. Such links are evaluated through vectorautoregressions (VARs) on monthly data spanning over the period 1999-2017, for Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Portugal. We check whether such relations are confirmed across different sub-periods and also adopt a non-parametric approach by using a Pesaran-Timmermann test. We find different contemporaneous and lead-lag relationships between stock prices and the selected variables, although there are variations across countries. VAR models indicate that stock prices significantly lead inflation across all countries during the sample period and in most cases this relationship was positive. In addition, stock prices significantly lead industrial production in four of the sampled countries and these relationships were positive as well. Contrary to long-established finance theories, we did not find numerous significant links between interest rates and stock indices; however the interaction between interest rates and money supply was a leading indicator of stock prices in France, Germany and Portugal.

We study the impact of the suspension of opening and closing call auctions by the National Stock Exchange of India in 1999. We compare volatility, efficiency and liquidity (VEL) of securities before and after suspension, and estimate the value of the auctions using an event study. Following suspension, VEL improved and the CARs were significant but not uniformly positive or negative. Also, less liquid stocks traded less in the auctions than other securities, especially at the opening, and they experienced gains following suspension. This is consistent with there being liquidity externalities associated with auctions, as appears to be the case in some industrial countries. We conclude that opening and closing call auctions may not necessarily improve share trading in a less liquid emerging market.

This study examines the connections between stock prices and key macroeconomic indicators: inflation, industrial production, interest rates, money supply and select interactions between the latter group of variables. Such links are evaluated through vectorautoregressions (VARs) on monthly data spanning over the period 1999-2017, for Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Portugal. We check whether such relations are confirmed across different sub-periods and also adopt a non-parametric approach by using a Pesaran-Timmermann test. We find different contemporaneous and lead-lag relationships between stock prices and the selected variables, although there are variations across countries. VAR models indicate that stock prices significantly lead inflation across all countries during the sample period and in most cases this relationship was positive. In addition, stock prices significantly lead industrial production in four of the sampled countries and these relationships were positive as well. Contrary to long-established finance theories, we did not find numerous significant links between interest rates and stock indices; however the interaction between interest rates and money supply was a leading indicator of stock prices in France, Germany and Portugal.