Finance

The present study investigates the relationship between corporate governance profile of acquiring firms and operating performance changes associated with merger and acquisitions in Pakistan. The financial sector mergers and acquisitions have been selected as sample transactions for the period of 1996 to 2008 and two years pre- and post-merger analysis has been conducted by using OLS regression. The estimated results indicated that post-merger operating performance of acquiring firms is positively related to its pre-merger level. Moreover, board size and CEO duality are negatively while board independence, outside dominated boards, and presence of large independent blockholder are positively related to change in post-merger operating performance of acquiring firms in Pakistan. The results were also robust with an alternative dependent variable of change in market value of acquiring firms. The results from replaced dependent variable were found to be more strong and cohesive with corporate governance profile of acquiring firms. Aligned with the existing literature, the study concluded that effective corporate governance mechanism does play its role in aligning the interests of managers with shareholders and enhances value for firms, particularly in large scale transactions of mergers and acquisitions.

A bulk of the Nigeria wealth is derived from Oil and Agriculture which lies in abundant quantity in rural communities. Current estimates put the rural population at over 80% of the entire population of almost 160 million people. So far, not much in terms of infrastructural development has been done to bring this bulk of concentration of both human and material resources to contribute optimally to national economy. The neglect has resulted to the mass exodus of rural dwellers and in turn has made the rural area qualitatively and quantitatively depopulated, and progressively less attractive for socio-economic investment. It is against this backdrop that this paper evaluates the impact of Nigerian commercial banks on rural populace in Oyo metropolis and; also to determine the relationship that exists between various activities of commercial banks and its rural populace. In line with the objectives, two hypotheses were formulated. The population of the study is the eight (8) Commercial Banks in Oyo metropolis and three (3) were selected as sample size. The study utilized data from primary source. Data were obtained from the questionnaires administered. The time frame for the study is ten years, covering the period of 2002 to 2011. The technique of analysis used in the data was Analysis of variance (ANOVA). We concluded that even though commercial banks activities such as giving out loans and receiving deposit has positive impact on the rural economy, there is room for the Commercial banks to gear more of its activities towards empowerment of the rural populace. Commercial banks should also strategize on how to attract and retain more deposits so as to further improve on their lending performance towards the rural dwellers. In addition to establishing a policy framework that maximizes the incomes of the working rural dwellers through policies to promote rural self-employment and reliability.

The aim of the study is to show the relationship between the stock market developments with gross domestic product (GDP). Framework is used to show the impact of stock market on GDP over the period of 2000 to 2011 quarterly. The methods applied in the research were correlation, regression and Augmented Dicky Fuller unit root test. The arguments are made on whether it is the stock market that leads to the economic growth or the other way around. Stock market plays a very significant role as a financial intermediary. Some researchers are in favor of the argument that stock market doesn’t lead to the economic growth and conclude that emerging stock markets have little positive impact on economic growth. Some analysts argue that, because most of the corporations don’t raise capital by issuance of equity only, so the role of stock market is weak in causing economic growth, (Mayer, 1988). In contrast, Levine (1991) show that stock markets provide liquidity and can cause economic growth substantially. And now the result of research explained that there is no significant impact or stock market development on gross domestic product. The Augmented Dicky Fuller unit root test explained that 1) D (logn_index_points) represents the 1st difference and the p value is less than 0.01 so we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that the data of index points is stationary at 1st difference. 2) D (LOGN_REAL_GDP) represents the 2nd difference of GDP of Pakistan and the p value is less than 0.01, so we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that the data of GDP is stationary at 2nd difference. The regression result shown that D2 LOGN_REAL_GDP represents the 2nd difference of quarterly GDP of Pakistan and DLOGN_INDEX_POINTS represents the 1st difference of KSE-100 index which has been used as a proxy for stock market development for the purpose of this study. The P value against the t-statistic is insignificant, so we have to accept the null hypothesis.

The Indian Financial System, in the last two decades, has seen a phenomenal expansion in the geographical coverage and financial spread. The spread of the banking system has been a major factor in promoting financial intermediation in the economy and in the growth of financial savings. With progressive liberalization of economic policies, there has been a rapid growth of capital market, money market and financial services industry including merchant banking, leasing and venture capital. Consistent with this evolution of the financial sector, the mutual fund industry has also come to occupy an important place. The Indian mutual fund industry has grown at an impressive rate in the last few years, the recent developments of the past few months triggered by the global financial crisis have impacted the fortunes of the Industry resulting in AUM decline, adversely impacting the revenue and profitability. Our research has attempted to identify and highlight some of the key issues and challenges being faced by the industry participants that are preventing the industry from harnessing its true growth potential.

The study investigates the significant determinants of stock returns of all non-financial listed companies in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), Pakistan from 1998-2011 by using panel data techniques. In addition, this study further categorized into Syariah and Non-Syariah compliant firms to examine the significant differences of stock determinants. All listed stocks in Karachi Meezan Index (KMI) are entitled as Syariah complaint firms, rest of the firms listed in KSE all index are identified as non-Syariah complaint firms. As Syariah complaint firms don’t use any unethical means to cater its stock prices, so, it was hypothesized that Syariah stocks follow the fundamental of the companies. Size, book to market, leverage, dividend yield, earning to price, cash flow to price and discretionary accrual represents the fundamentals while market premium, stock price volatility and trading volume indicates the stock market variables. Fixed effect model and Random effect model is applied for statistical estimations. Hausman test is further used to find the most significant model. Modified wald test find the heteroskedasticity, final results were robust to counter the heteroskedasticity issue. The results of all non-financial listed firms confirmed the significant positive market premium, size, stock price volatility and trading volume whereas significant negative book to market ratio. Market premium, leverage and stock price volatility are the only significant determinants of Syariah complaint firms. Insignificance of BM and TV confirms that Syariah stocks follow the fundamentals instead of noise trading. In a nutshell, Syariah complaint firms respond to fundamentals although non-Syariah complaint firms follow noise trading in Pakistani context.

The global financial crisis, brewing for a while, really started to show its effects in the middle of 2007 and into 2008. Around the world stock markets have fallen, large financial institutions have collapsed or been bought out, and governments in even the wealthiest nations have had to come up with rescue packages to bail out their financial systems. Indian economy began to slow down in 2007-08 (April-March) after reaching a GDP growth of 9.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2006-07. In fact, Indian economy grew at an annual average rate of 8.8 per cent during the five years ending 2007-08. In the first half of the financial year 2008-09, the growth rate dropped to 7.8 per cent. The global crisis has hit India through a “sudden stop” of capital inflows and a collapse of both external and domestic demand. The growth of the economy dropped to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 from 9.0 per cent in the previous year and is slowly increased to 8% in 2009-10 and 8.5% for the financial year 2010-11. The present paper is an attempt to analyze the impact of global recession on Indian economy, how the Indian economy recovered and also analyze whether the global crisis still influencing the Indian economy

The main aim of present study is to examine the impact of environmental uncertainty (market ) , the investments and the quality of information available to the authority of the investments of accepted Tehran Stock Exchange listed companies , as well as the increasing introduction of a new theory named the actual authority .The investment authority in asset capital also like authority is on financial assets with the difference that these authorities appear on the real assets such as the land , building , machinery and other physical assets. By using the traditional methods of assessing projects such as the method of cash flow reduction (net present value and internal rate of return). With regard to the elements of environmental uncertainty, managerial authority and flexibility in projects and investments lead unrealistic assessment. So with regard to these drawbacks to use theory of investment authority and its effects in the value of the company and determining its value could be a great help to the better and more real assessment of projects and investments. So in case this question arises that with regard to this point that managers have such authority, how they regard the structure and the logic of investments authority in the analysis and designing their projects with a view to environmental uncertainty, the cost of investment, riskless interest rate and the quality of the information available for the company ?. For this purpose by using public formula of Cochrane a sample including 163 financial directors of the corporate (manufacturing) of Tehran Stock Exchange reviewed their views and opinions about the investments authorities. And also to analyze the data the linear regression was used. By regarding the conducted surveys it become clear that based on the above - mentioned managers points of view the independent variables ( environmental uncertainty , riskless interest rate, cost of investment and the quality of the information available ) have a significant impact on investment authority .

This paper empirically examines the existence of casual relation between insurance sector development and economic growth in Iran for the period 1960-2010. In this investigation we apply the Augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit Root test, the Johansen’s Cointegration test and the Granger Causality Wald test based on Vector Autoregression (VAR) model. According to the obtained results, there is a unidirectional causality relation from insurance development to economic growth. Therefore, we conclude that insurance development is an important prerequisite for stimulating economic growth in Iran. These results confirm the supply-leading theory.

Economic effects of human beings have been always focused on how to obtain the best results b using the least possibilities and factors available, such tendency can be called "attainment of higher efficiency and productivity". Productivity is a comprehensive concept encompassing efficiency an increase in which is taken into account by politic and economic authorities continuously in order to promote standard of living of, welfare of, and relaxation and peace of people. Some consider survival and persistence of a politico-economic system dependent on productivity. One way to increase productivity is privatization and free trade. Present research focuses on effects of these 2 variables on each other. Subject of this research is to study effects of privatization on total productivity of production factors in in Mellat Bank and its aim is to analyze productivity after Mellat Bank was privatized in order for resulting outcomes to create clearer outlook and wider perspective in front of managers. Considering research aim and subject, this research used descriptive-analytical method. In present research, inputs and outputs of 48 Mellat Bank of Kermanshah province were studied in 2 time intervals: one related to pre-privatization time (2005-2007) and other to post-privatization time (2009-2011) of Mellat Bank. This research inputs include personnel, administrative, and operational costs while outputs include volumes of deposits, facilities, and services provided. Data was analyzed by using MalmQuist index and data coverage analysis with EMS and GAMS software. Then, hypotheses were tested by SPSS software. Research results indicate that, following privatization, total productivity index and human force productivity increased significantly and it was found that technological changes relate directly to the level of productivity so that enhanced technology level can increase productivity level.

Employee welfare “ the efforts to make life worth living for workmen ”. Employee welfare means anything done for the comfort and improvement , Intellectual or social , of the employees over and above the wages paid which is not a necessity of the industry.”Organizations provide welfare facilities to their employees to keep their motivation levels high. In the light of above, the researcher has selected the M&M Limited (Tactor Division), to know the satisfaction levels of employees about labour welfare measures provided by the organization on the basis of responses of sample respondents.M&M Limited (Tactor Division) is always ahead in improving the working and living conditions of its employees and it has done a lot in respect of providing welfare measures for its employees in the areas of Education, Medical, Housing, Transport, Sports , Recreational facilities etc.