Bank Disclosure and Stock Price Synchronicity: Evidence from Dual-Banking System Countries

Abstract

In stock markets, information plays a crucial role in determining trading dynamics and price discovery. In the investment decisions, an investor may have incomplete information regarding the firm-specific factors because of information asymmetry. Therefore, investors rely on market factors. Extensive work has been done on stock price synchronicity (SYNCH) from the dual banking system viewpoint. Therefore, the present study examines the association of Stock Price Synchronicity with Bank’s Disclosure items and Shariah Compliance using data of 138 banks for 09 years (2011-2019) by taking dual banking system countries. We consider 11 countries, i.e., Bahrain, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen, for analysis.  We select different banks based on these countries' dual banking systems and exclude two countries (UAE & Yemen) due to data availability issues. Data of 138 banks is analyzed using specific statistical techniques like descriptive statistics, correlation, Fisher-type unit-root test, endogeneity test, and generalized method of moments (GMM) by using STATA. In the analysis, we found that bank disclosure has a significant positive relationship with SYNCH. However, shariah compliance banks have a significant negative relation with SYNCH. Moreover, control variables which include banks profitability, and leverage have a significant positive relationship with SYNCH. The banks' size has a significant negative relationship because the size affects the banks according to the market.

Keywords: Stock Price Synchronicity, Bank’s Disclosure, Asymmetric Information, Banking Sector.

JEL Classification:  D82, G21