Open AccessDividends Announcement and Semi Strong Form of Efficiency at The Nairobi Securities Exchange in Kenya
Author(s) -
Duncan Turere,
Tobias Olweny
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
account and financial management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2456-3374
DOI - 10.47191/afmj/v5i10.02
Subject(s) - dividend , inefficiency , stock exchange , business , dividend policy , monetary economics , closing (real estate) , timeline , stock market , economics , financial system , finance , market economy , paleontology , archaeology , horse , biology , history
The objective of this study was to establish the effects of dividend announcement to current market prices at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, with four specific objectives; to determine the information content of dividend announcements, to determine the extent to which prices converge to new values after dividend announcements on a sector by sector basis, to establish the market reaction to announced information and also to establish whether investors can secure excess returns by acting on announced information. A 66 days event timeline was employed from 2005 to 2015 on daily closing stock prices. A sample of 179 dividend announcements from 22 listed companies in 8 sectors were drawn and analysed using an OLS Market Model. Findings of the research conclude that; dividend announcements do have an impact on stock prices for the Agricultural, Banking, Commercial, Construction, Manufacturing and Telecomm Sectors and not for the Energy Sector, Insurance Sector and the Nairobi Securities Exchange Market. It takes more than five days for prices to adjust to their correct values and this makes it possible for market players to profit from the inefficiency by earning abnormal returns. We conclude that the Nairobi Securities Exchange is not semi-strong form efficient.