Exchange Rates and Stock Prices in the MENA Countries: What Role for Oil?

This paper considers the linkage between stock prices and exchange rates in four MENA (Middle East and North Africa) emerging markets. In contrast to the existing evidence that uses a global market index to uncover such a relationship it is found that for the sample countries oil prices emerge as the dominant factor in the above relationship. The paper considers the presence of regime shifts and evidence is found of cointegration only for the period following the 1999 oil price shock. Readjustment towards equilibrium in each stock market occurs via oil price changes. Finally, a number of robustness checks are performed and persistence profiles produced. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Switching to floating exchange rates, devaluations, and stock returns in MENA countries

We test for the impact of the announcements of floating and/or devaluating the exchange rate on stock returns in three MENA countries after the financial crises they experienced. We, first, use an event-study methodology to test for event-induced abnormal volatility of stock returns in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. We, then, use three different methodologies to test for abnormal returns: a traditional approach and two approaches that control for event-induced volatility. We find clear evidence of abnormal volatility and abnormal returns due to the floating of the Egyptian and Turkish exchange rates in 2003 and 2001, respectively. In contrast, our results do not show that the devaluation of the Moroccan currency in 2001 resulted in abnormal volatility and/or abnormal returns. © 2011 Elsevier Inc

Stock returns and exchange rate volatility spillovers in the mena region

In this article, we examine the presence of volatility spillovers between nominal exchange rates and stock returns in three MENA countries: Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. The multivariate GARCH model we use does not produce evidence of cross-market effects for the general stock indices returns. Nevertheless, bidirectional shock and volatility spillovers between exchange rates and stock returns exist at the industry sector level. These findings are more pronounced in Egypt and Turkey. The different results are due to the different exchange rate regimes/policies adopted by the three countries. While exchange rates in Egypt and Turkey were allowed to float, Morocco followed a more tightly managed exchange rate regime

Reduced ascending/descending pass bias in SMOS salinity data demonstrated by observing westward-propagating features in the South Indian Ocean

The European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite has been providing data, including sea surface salinity (SSS) measurements, for more than five years. However, the operational ESA Level 2 SSS data are known to have significant spatially and temporally varying biases between measurements from ascending passes (SSSA) and measurements from descending passes (SSSD).This paper demonstrates how these biases are reduced through the use of SSS anomalies. Climatology products are constructed using SMOS Level 2 data to provide daily, one-degree by one-degree climatologies separately for ascending and descending passes using a moving window approach (in time and space). The daily, one-degree products can then be averaged to provide values of climatological SSS at different spatial and/or temporal resolutions.The averaged values of the SMOS climatology products are in good general agreement with data from the World Ocean Atlas 2013. However, there are significant differences at high latitudes, as well as in coastal and dynamic regions, as found by previous studies. Both the mean and standard deviation of the differences between data from ascending passes and data from descending passes for the anomalies are reduced compared with those obtained using the original salinity values.Geophysical signals are clearly visible in the anomaly products and an example is shown in the Southern Indian Ocean of westward-propagating signals that we conclude represent the surface expression of Rossby waves or large-scale non-linear eddies. The signals seen in salinity data agree (in speed) with those from sea surface temperature and sea surface height and are consistent with previous studies

Determinação da digestibilidade de nutrientes através da técnica do "saco de nylon" mais pepsina

Procurou-se verificar se a digestão de alimento em saco de "nylon", acrescida por tratamento com pepsina, seria equivalente à digestão obtida pelo método direto clássico, o de coleta total de fezes, já determinado anteriormente com ovinos. Seguiu-se um delineamento experimental em blocos ao acaso, com 6 repetições e 4 tratamentos, ou seja, tratamento A: ração contendo 100% de feno de capim de Rhodes; B: 85% de feno de Rhodes mais 15% de farelo de côco; C: 70% de feno de Rhodes mais 30% de farelo de côco; e D: 100% de farelo de côco. O animal fistulado utilizado para teste foi um bovino adulto, macho, de raça holandesa; o tempo de permanência do saco de "nylon" no rume foi de 72 horas; e a dieta consistiu em feno de Rhodes à vontade mais 2kg de farelo de coco por dia. Os resultados foram analisados através de análise da variância e curvas de regressão, e a comparação entre métodos de digestibilidade pelo teste de Tukey. Houve influência da associação de alimentos sobre a digestibilidade da fibra bruta (FB) e dos extrativos não nitrogenados (ENN), mas não sobre as demais frações - matéria seca (MS), extrato etéreo (EE) e proteína bruta (PB). A digestibilidade da fibra diminuiu com a inclusão e o acúmulo do nível de farelo na dieta. Não houve equivalência consistente entre os métodos testados de digestiblidade, variando ou não conforme o nutriente e o tratamento considerado. De modo geral, a inclusão de aproximadamente 15% de farelo de côco (tratamento B) favoreceu o melhor aproveitamento da dieta."Nylon bag" technique, followed by 48 hours of chloridric pepsin digestion, was tried for determination of the digestibility of proximate nutrients of Rhodes grass hay (Chloris gayana, Kunth, cv. callide) and coconut caque meal, and compared with results from "in vivo" method. In a randomized blocks design, 100% of Rhodes grass, and mixtures of 85% and 70% of the grass hay with 15%, and 30% of coconut cake, and 100% coconut cake, made up four treatments (A, B, C and D, respectively). The coefficients of digestibility for Dry Matter and for proximate nutrients in treatments A, B and C, determined through nylon bags in bovine rumen, were compared to the coefficients determined by total faces collection, in sheep. It was observed and concluded that: a) Position of samples along the supoort-bars inside rumen, as well as dfferent periods of animal usage, had no influence on the results; b) The calculated proportions of coconut in the mixture to obtain best digestibility were 17.48% for Dry Matter, 21.10% for Ether Extract, 29.01% for Crude Protein, and 16.49% for Non Nitrogenous Extrat. Crude Fiber digestibility decreased linearly as the coconut proportion in the mixture increased; c) "Nylon bag" and "in vivo" methods gave similar coefficients of digestibility for Crude Fiber for all treatments; for other nutrients, however, there were differences depending on treatments; d) TDN values for coconut cake meal, determined through "nylon bags" were 68.76% taking the average coefficients of digestibility from treatments B and C, and 68.08% from treatment D; "in vivo", the average from B and gave 71.06% of TDN; such a small difference in NDT suggests to have had no interference of foods on digestibility; e) NDT calculate for Rhodes grass hay was 58.38% "in nylon bags", and 44.81% "in vivo", when treatment A was the only one considered; thus, it could be concluded that nylon bag plus pepsin method did not work for Rhodes hay