Finance

The present study empirically investigates the risk and return relationship by loading the macroeconomic information in standard CAPM in addition to market information. One hundred financial and non financial companies listed on Karachi Stock Exchange are investigated over a period of January 2005 to August 2011. Monthly data is used for the company asset prices, market portfolio and macroeconomic variables in this study. The macroeconomic variables are used as additional risk forces in the model. The study makes use of CAPM with unconditional and conditional specification for the prediction of future asset prices. The time varying conditional information and lagged macroeconomic variables are added in the model. The GARCH (1, 1) – M technique is applied to capture the conditional volatility clustering of asset returns. The findings of the current study reveals that conditional multifactor CAPM have better results than unconditional multifactor CAPM model. The residuals and conditional variances have significantly positive impact and are helpful in explaining time varying behaviour of asset returns. The macroeconomic variables such as oil prices, foreign exchange rate, foreign exchange reserves, inflation rate, interest rate, and money supply play significant role while industrial production index, unemployment rate, and market returns have inconclusive role in this study. The study concludes that macroeconomic risk factors play a prominent role in explaining stock returns.

The Government reform agenda, was to try and address how GoEs can attain self-sufficiency to ease the burden of overreliance on subsidies, through introduction of new government guidelines, policies and strategies designed at improving their financial sustainability. However reviews have shown that despites all these improvements, the GoEs often do not operate optimally for sustainability, attributing to either internal or external factors. Even though various studies have been done on financial sustainability, limited research have been carried out on financial sustainability of GoEs hence there is limited information on GoEs in the MOALF. This study sought to identify financial sustainability basics. The study focused on resource utilization as a determinant. A causal research design was adopted and with 27 organizations responding positively, giving a sample size of 134. The study used both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires and interview guides. The secondary data involved review of published information on Financial Statements of GoEs in MOALF. Data was obtained for a period of 7 years from 2009/2010 to 2014/15 financial years and analyzed using SPPS version 21 statistical software, fitted into a multi linear regression model and t-statistic. From the study it was evident that, management of working capital was key factor that influenced financial sustainability of the GoEs. Working capital had a positive correlated to financial sustainability with investment opportunities being inversely related to financial suitability hence lack of proper policies on Investment and strategies affects financial sustainability. The study recommends that prioritized resource utilization should be given more emphasis as a means to ensure that institutional goals are set in line with the availability of funds. There should be proper projects evaluation and prioritization before allocation of resources is done to the most profitable project, bottom up resource management should be adopted, thereby keeping expenditure within the approved levels is also key. GoEs should endeavour to adopt hybrid model of management that incorporates both public and private interface. Policies on investment should be developed, Investment in green finance and adoption of climatic finance that significantly reduce effects on the environment enhancing sustainability. They should also adopt a holistic evaluation model not limited to financial evaluation through innovative accounting that encompassing the key goals and objectives of their existence and adoption of risk assessment framework. The Ministry should set limits with the set frameworks for the Key ratios used to measure Financial Sustainability.

With the public corporations in Kenya embracing strategic management which was heralded to bring the much needed improvement in their performance, the much awaited change has not been as widely seen as was anticipated but is rather slow and at times even retrogressive. There is still concern about poor performance of these public corporations. This can only mean one thing. The strategies are not working or in academic terms, the strategies have not been successfully implemented. Studies have shown the various aspects that contribute to the success of strategy and these have been adopted by the public corporation. This leaves one field not explored- The effect of stakeholder involvement on the successful implementation of strategy. However with public corporations, caution has to be taken on which stakeholder to involve and to what extent. This thus called for the present study to analyze the effect of involving each stakeholder in strategic planning and implementation on successful strategy implementation. Due to the number of public corporations and their homogeneity, a study on one should reflect on what happens in the others. This is the rationale for using KEBS. The study used a desk research design and explored much on the effects of stakeholder involvement on successful strategy implementation in public corporations.

Internet banking has made drastic changes in the banking system of India. The Indian banking with its large network provides various kinds of E-Banking services to the customer. Now a day’s most of the banking transaction happens through E-touch. E-Banking is modernizing the whole system of the bank with the aid of technology. Though the bankers as well as the customers were facing some initial hitch with the introduction of E-Banking, later stages the country has witnessed a wide spread acceptance of technology for banking. The SBI and ICICI banks plays very crucial role in banking industries. The paper attempts to give an insight on various E-banking services and the latest development in E-Banking for the period of 2010-11 to 2015-16. The paper also focuses on the challenges faced by banking industry in adopting the E-banking with the help of IT.

Health Insurance can be broadly defined as a financial mechanism that exists to provide protection to individual and house holds from expenses incurred as a result of unexpected illness or injury. Under this mechanism, the insurer agrees to compensate or guarantee the insured person against loss by specified contingent event and provide financial coverage for which the insured party pays a premium.

To evaluate the financial conditions and performance of a company, the financial analysis needs certain yardsticks. Among the variables, tools are employed in analyzing the financial information contained in the financial statements. Ratio analysis is a widely used tool, which is relevant in assessing the performance of a firm in respect of liquidity position, long-term, solvency. In additional to this, it helps to predict the financial distress of the business. An attempt has been made in the present study to have an insight into the examination of financial health of the organization using Z-Score analysis.

This paper investigates the influence of terrorist activities taking place in Pakistan on KSE (Karachi Stock Exchange) for the period of 01/2005 to 12/2010 using the GARCH & GARCH- EVT to identify the relationship between these two variables, the study establishes that the terrorist activities adversely affect the financial markets and in case of KSE, it is highly significant relation. Reason for the negative relationship exists because of the foremost increase in number of terrorism attacks in Pakistan.

According to traditional financial theory, the world and its participants are, for the most part, rational "wealth maximizers". However, there are many instances where emotion and psychology persuade our decisions, causing us to act in irregular or irrational ways. Behavioral finance is a rather new area that seeks to combine behavioral and cognitive psychological theory with conventional economics and finance to provide explanations for why people make irrational financial decisions. There are some irregularities that conventional financial theories have failed to explain. And what are the original reasons and biases that cause some people to behave irrationally and often in opposition to their top benefits. When using the labels "conventional" or "modern" to describe finance, we are talking about the type of finance that is based on rational and logical theories, such as the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and the efficient market hypothesis (EMH). These theories assume that people, for the most part, behave rationally and predictable in making decisions.

This paper investigates the affect of international trade and global economy through foreign direct investment. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade are often seen as important catalysts for economic growth in the developing countries. FDI is an important vehicle of technology transfer from developed countries to developing countries. FDI also stimulates domestic investment and facilitates improvements in human capital and institutions in the host countries. International trade is also known to be an instrument of economic growth. Global foreign direct investment (FDI) trends are likely to modify during the period 2004-2007. FDI has promoted to effective economic growth in a number of developing countries and the role of the foreign direct investment in this field has been extensively known in China and India, the world’s two most populous growing economics have been using FDI as a stimulus in the growth process. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an integral part of an open and effective international economic system and a major catalyst to development. The growing role of foreign direct investment and multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries in the age of globalization is rarely disputed. The nature of the impact of FDI on the growth and development of the Third World, however, is a controversial topic in contemporary international relations and economic development theory. Historically, developing countries heavily depended on the economies of the industrialized world for their own economic survival. During the past two decades, however, the world economy has increasingly "globalized" through the liberalization of world trade and capital markets, the growing internationalization of corporate production and distribution, and the destruction of barriers to the trade of goods and services through technological advances. Meanwhile, the world’s developing countries are now more important, and influential, actors in international trade and the global market.

Current study intended to explore cost of financial distress in case of Pakistani manufacturing ongoing firms listed at KSE. In doing so, financial distress is divided into operating distress and financial but not operating distress. Sample consists of ongoing firms that were at least once on distress counter for the period of analysis. To conclude the proposed theory descriptive and independent t-test for mean differences are used. It is found that firms bear opportunity loss before and after entering to both operating and financial distress. Moreover, results also show that operating distress affects more to firms’ value as compared to financial but not operating distress category. However, result for pre financial but not operating distress is found insignificant. In conclusion current study provides opportunity to all investors, management and other stakeholders to assess firms’ performances before and after entering to both operating and financial distress.