The Market Performance of Initial Public Offerings in the Istanbul Stock Exchange

This study examines the long-standing IPO performance in the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) by using new factors such as source of shares (new issue or sale of large shareholders), allocation of shares and dispersion of investors as well as existing factors such as market conditions (hot/cold), underwriters’ reputation, and firm characteristics (firm size, E/P, and B/M ratios) in the period of 1990-2000. Our results differ from the previous studies at least three ways. First, the magnitude of underpricing is significantly lower, while underperformance is higher than those of in other studies. Our strong evidence supports the existence of the underpricing by positive initial excess returns (5.94%) and the long-term underperformance up to three-year holding period (-84.5%) in the ISE. Second, underperformance starts much earlier than in other markets i.e. at the end of first month following the IPO because of myopic behavior of investors seeking short-term returns. Third, the underperformance disappears for IPOs made in a cold market, and those made through the sale of large shareholders. Allocation of shares in an IPO and firm size also impact after-market performance of sharesInitial Public Offerings, Underperformance, Underpricing, Market Efficiency, Emerging Markets

Trading halts and the advantage of institutional investors: Historical evidence from Borsa Istanbul

The effects and effectiveness of trading halts remain controversial among academics and regulators. This paper provides historical evidence regarding the efficacy of trading halts from a leading emerging market with a unique microstructure, Borsa Istanbul (Istanbul Stock Exchange), by examining the return, volatility, and volume behavior around news-initiated trading halts using trade-by-trade data and 15-min intervals from January 1999–April 2003. It also investigates, for the first time, the trading behavior of different types of investors, such as individuals, mutual funds, and brokerage houses, around trading halts. Findings indicate that most of the new information is absorbed by prices within 15 min following the resumption of trading after a halt. The reaction of investors to bad news is slower and stronger than good news. Despite halts, institutional investors employ the price advantage of new information during the cessation period ahead of individual investors utilizing better timing in trading after the halts. Institutional investors systematically buy and sell at more favorable prices around halts than individual investors. Finally, overall evidence suggests that trading halts are effective in the dissemination of valuable information and play an important role in enhancing the efficiency of the price dis covery mechanism

Profitability of Contrarian Strategies: Evidence from the Istanbul Stock Exchange-super-

This study examines the momentum and contrarian effects on stock returns in one of the leading emerging markets, which has a unique market structure, with record-high inflation, high volatility, high turnover, low correlation of returns with other exchanges and myopic investors: the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). It also investigates the weak-form efficiency of the stock market by examining the profitability of a number of contrarian strategies based on past returns, size, price, book-to-market and earnings-to-price ratios of stocks in various lengths of formation and holding periods. Our findings show that a self-financing trading strategy, buying past loser stocks and selling past winner stocks generate significant abnormal returns (approximately 15% annually) in ISE. However, these large contrarian profits are for bearing the extra risk of loser stocks similar to the US results. We also find significant price, size, and B/M effects in stock returns. Finally, our results show the continous profitability of contrarian strategies both in very short (starting from 1 month) and in long holding periods (up to 36 months), which appears to be related to country-specific factors. Copyright (c) International Review of Finance Ltd. 2007.

Effects of Price Limits on Volatility: Evidence from the Istanbul Stock Exchange

In spite of the strong existence of price limits in financial markets, there is not much agreement and information on the effects of price limits on volatility and price discovery, which has important policy implications for the investors and regulators. This study examines the effects of price limits on stock return volatility by testing the overreaction and information hypotheses for the Istanbul Stock Exchange. We implement structural break tests as well as a comprehensive GARCH framework to estimate the impact of price limits on volatility, controlling for structural breaks, financial and economic crises, trading activity, and business cycle fluctuations. Our results do not support the information hypothesis. The fundamental conclusion of this paper is that the two-hour break between the two daily sessions reduces volatility by acting as a circuit breaker, which facilitates the dissemination of valuable information, thus preventing severe overreactions to news events, which are consistent with the overreaction hypothesis.ARCH-GARCH modeling, emerging markets, price limits, volatility,