Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence the behavioral biases in Indian investors specifically, overconfidence, excessive optimism (pessimism), herd behavior and the disposition effect. It further investigates the role of demographics and investor sophistication in influencing the biases. Finally, it reveals which bias is most prevalent in the Indian context. Design/methodology/approach – For this purpose, a survey has been conducted on the investors of the Delhi/NCR area. The data have been collected with the help of a structured questionnaire that is analyzed with the help of relevant statistical tools. Findings – The survey evidence shows that behavioral biases are dependent on investors’ demographics and their trading sophistication with highest influencing factors being age, profession and trading frequency. Each bias corresponds to a specific set of investor characteristics and overconfidence comes out to be the most important bias in the Indian context. Research limitations/implications – The potential limitations of the present survey can be ascribed to socially desirable responses and their difference with actual market behavior. Further, due to time and resource constraint, the data set is limited to investors of only Delhi/NCR. Practical implications – This study is most relevant for financial advisors, as it facilitates them in gaining a better understanding of their clients’ psychology. It can aid them in developing behaviorally modified portfolio, which best suits their clients’ predisposition. Originality/value – The paper gives a unique insight on the investors’ profile corresponding to each bias under consideration. It not only updates the evidence on behavioral biases but also highlights which bias is the most influential in the Indian context.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to survey managers of dividend-paying firms listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in India to learn their views about the factors influencing dividend policy, dividend issues, and explanations for paying cash dividends and repurchasing shares. The authors compare the results to other dividend surveys based on firms in Indonesia, Canada, and the USA. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use questionnaire to gather primary data from a sample of 500 firms listed on the NSE. Findings – The most important determinants of dividends involve earnings (the stability of earnings as well as the level of current and expected future earnings) and the pattern of past dividends. Comparing the overall rankings of the 21 factors by respondents from Indian firms to those of Indonesian, Canadian, and US firms reveals statistically significant correlations. Respondents also perceive that dividend policy affects firm value. Respondents also view maintaining an uninterrupted record of dividends as important. The most highly supported explanations for paying cash dividends concern signaling, the firm life cycle, and catering. Although none of the theories of repurchasing shares is dominant, respondents provide little support for the agency explanation. Research limitations/implications – Although the tests suggest that the sample does not suffer from non-response bias, the findings should be viewed as suggestive rather than definitive because of the relatively low response rate. Originality/value – The paper presents new evidence about dividend policy of Indian firms. To the knowledge, this is the most comprehensive survey of Indian firms to date that captures managerial perceptions on both cash dividends and share repurchases.

The article investigates the presence of the disposition effect and overconfidence in the Indian equity market during 2006–2013 and provides some robust empirical evidence. It applies bivariate and trivariate vector autoregression (VAR) models and associated impulse response functions on the Indian equity market from NIFTY 50 index and individual security returns. The study arrives at three key findings. First, the presence of the biases, overconfidence and the disposition effect is detected in Indian equity market for our sample period. Second, the impact of these two biases can be distinctly segregated for 20 companies among the companies in the index. Lastly, the overconfidence bias is found to be predominant of the two. The study endorses the fact that like other developing markets, the Indian markets are not so efficient with respect to overconfidence and the disposition effect. This article is one of the few to provide empirical evidence for the behavioural issues (i.e., overconfidence and the disposition effect) at a market level that is otherwise studied at the individual investor level.

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The paper aims to study the effect of herding in Indian equity market. The authors have tested the presence of herding using data from National Stock Exchange (NSE) and methodology as described in Christie and Huang (1995) and Chang, Cheng and Khorana (2000). Security return dispersion as a function of aggregate market return has been taken as a proxy for herd behavior. To test the presence of herding linear regression model and linear regression using quadratic functional form has been applied. Previous studies have reported the presence of herding in emerging Asian economies. However no evidence has been found in developed economies. The result of the study endorses the fact that Indian markets are efficient as no severe herding has been reported. However when presence of herding was tested for periods of market stress, it prevailed in bull phase.