Inclusive Education in Government Primary Schools: Teacher Perceptions

The perceptions of primary school teachers towards inclusive education was investigated in mainstream government schools of Islamabad capital territory where inclusive education was being supported by Sight savers and other international organizations. The study was carried out involving 54 teachers in six randomly selected primary schools. The sampled group comprised both, teachers trained in inclusive education and teachers working in same schools, but not trained in inclusive education. Purposive sampling method was used to select the teachers. Structured questionnaire (Likert Scale) and structured interview method was used for data collection. The results of the study revealed that inclusive education is considered to be a desirable practice. The teachers believed that all learners regardless of their disabilities should be in regular classrooms and they showed more favorable attitude towards children with mild disabilities, but were not very optimistic about children with severe disabilities. The study also recognized teachers’ capacity as an essential component of inclusive education and recommends that inclusive education should be a part of pre and in-service teacher education

Systematic Risk Factors and Stock Return Volatility

This study analyzes the transmission of systematic risk exhaling from macroeconomic fundamentals to volatility of stock market by using auto regressive generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedastic (AR-GARCH) and vector auto regressive (VAR) models. Systematic risk factors used in this study are industrial production, real interest rate, inflation, money supply and exchange rate from 2000-2014. Results indicate that there exists relationship among the volatility of macroeconomic factors and that of stock returns in Pakistan. The relationship among the volatility of macroeconomic variables and that of stock returns is bidirectional; both affect each other in different dynamics

Performance of Islamic and Conventional Banks in Pakistan: A Comparative Study

This study is conducted to find out financial performance of Islamic and conventional banks operating in Pakistan for the year 2006-2014. For comparison purpose five Islamic and five similar sized conventional banks have been selected. The comparison has been made on average values of different ratios of both Islamic and conventional banks. The comparison shows that Islamic banks performance has been better in terms of efficiency, return and asset quality. However Islamic banks are struggling in terms of advances, investment, liquidity, deposits and capital as conventional banks performance is better in these areas. Islamic banks are charging higher spread and share of distributable income to depositors is far less as compared to conventional banks. Islamic banks need to focus on fair distribution of profit to its depositors in order to increase its credibility and help in achieving overall Islamic socio economic objectives of justice and equality. Islamic banks should focus on new products development and innovative solutions to meet client's needs, also Islamic banks needs to strengthen their equity base.    Keywords: Financial Performance, Financial Ratios, Comparison, Islamic banks, Conventional Banks JEL Classifications: E44, G2

Does Dividend Announcement Generate Market Signal? Evidence from Pakistan

This study is aimed at investigating the signaling effect of cash dividend announcements by employing the standard event methodology over the companies listed on Karachi Stock Exchange. The companies are randomly selected from different sectors that have announced cash dividends during calendar year 2010 and total 30 companies are included in the study. The standard event methodology is applied to explore the impact of cash dividend announcements upon stock returns and an event window of 15 days with dividend announcement date as the event day is constructed. The results show that the average abnormal returns, by and large, remained positive and statistically significant in post-event window days. The results of study tend to support dividend signaling hypothesis indicating that the dividend announcement may be used as a tool to generate positive signals in the market. Keywords: Dividend Announcements, Event Window, Abnormal Returns and t-Test JEL Classifications: F65; G

Determinants of Banks Profitability: A Comparative Study of Islamic Verses Non Islamic, Foreign Verses Local, and Public Verses Private Banks in Pakistan

This study examines the determinants of banks profitability in Pakistan. The main objectives of the study are to determine the factors that influence banks profitability in Pakistan and to make recommendations for management decision making and policy objectives. A panel data of 25 banks (commercial, Islamic, foreign and local banks) in Pakistan was analyzed over period of 2006-2015, using panel data regression method to estimate common, fixed and random effect regression models. The two key measures of profitability (dependent variables) analyzed in this study comprised of ROA and Return ROE. The bank-specific factors were incorporated into the regression models, were Credit risk, Expenses Management, Deposits to total assets, non-interest income and size. The results for the ROA model indicate that size and deposit to total assets of bank is positively significant to bank profitability while credit risk, expenses management and non interest income are negatively affect the profitability. Moreover the results of ROE model indicates that credit risk and NII are negatively significant and Size is positively significant with banks profitability. This study also indicates the comparison between Islamic verses non Islamic, Foreign verses local, and public verses private banks which shows there different results on banks profitability

The Impact of Stock Market Performance on Foreign Portfolio Investment in China

The research is aimed at investigating the impact of stock market performance and inflation on foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in China. For this purpose, time series quarterly data from 2007Q1 to 2015Q4 is used. On the basis of stationarity results, ARDL model is used to examine the impact of the stock market prices and inflation on FPI. The results show that there is significant positive impact of stock market performance on the FPI, whereas inflation is found to be negatively associated with the FPI. The study also reveals that some historical events like Asian financial crisis of 2008, and the Shanghai Composite Stock Index crash of 2015, significantly affected the foreign portfolio investment in China. The investors should consider these two factors while investing in foreign financial markets. Keywords: Stock Market Performance, Inflation, FPI, China JEL Classifications: F21, G11, O16, P4

Shujahat Hashmi's Quick Files

The Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity

Testing overconfidence bias in Pakistani stock market

Abstract: Excessive trading phenomenon is contrary to the concept of traditional finance that is based on the rational expectation theorem and efficient market hypothesis. Therefore, this study is aimed at exploring the existence of overconfidence behavior in the stock market. The market-wide panel VAR model is used to investigate the lead-lag relationship between stock returns and turnover. Our results suggest that investors are overconfident in Pakistani stock market because turnover depends directly upon stock returns. The findings have important implications for investors and brokers for developing appropriate trading strategy

Impact of Corporate Governance Measures on Earnings Quality: Evidence from Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of corporate governance on earnings quality of the manufacturing firms listed on Karachi Stock Exchange. Whereas, earning quality of the firm has been addressed by earnings management and discretionary accruals used to measure the level of earnings management. In this study Jones Model has been used to calculate discretionary accruals. Moreover, we had used four characteristics to capture the effect of corporate governance like audit quality, CEO duality, board size and gender diversity and two control variables firm size and leverage. Findings of the study disclose significant negative impact of audit quality and board size on earnings management, while the relationship between firm size and earnings management is positively significant. Keywords: Earnings Management, Corporate Governance, Pakista

Macroeconomic factors and foreign portfolio investment volatility: A case of South Asian countries

Macroeconomic factors play a pivotal role in attracting foreign investment in the country. This study investigates the relationship between macroeconomic factors and foreign portfolio investment volatility in South Asian countries. The monthly data is collected for the period ranging from 2000 to 2012 for four Asian countries i.e. China, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka because monthly data is ideal for measuring portfolio investment volatility. For measuring volatility in foreign portfolio investment, GARCH (1,1) is used because shocks are responded quickly by this model. The results reveal that there exists significant relationship between macroeconomic factors and foreign portfolio investment volatility. Thus, less volatility in international portfolio flows is associated with high interest rate, currency depreciation, foreign direct investment, lower inflation, and higher GDP growth rate of the host country. Thus findings of this study suggest that foreign portfolio investors focus on stable macroeconomic environment of country