An Econometric Model of the Role of Financial Institutions in Financing Private Investment in Pakistan

The paper examines the relationship not only between private investment and financial linkage variables but also amongst the linkage variables. It examines the effect of different policy instruments on investment to provide guidelines to monetary authorities. It shows that the private investment in Pakistan was linked with the availability rather than the price of funds

Tests of the different variants of the monetary model in a developing economy : Malaysian experience in the pre-and post-crisis periods.

This study examines the validity of four different variants of the monetary model of exchange rate determination for Malaysia covering both the pre- and post-crisis periods using the vector error-correction models. The findings demonstrate that for both periods, the variables used are cointegrated. Tests tend to suggest that of the four variants of monetary model, the sticky-price model holds in both periods and the flexible-price model holds only in the post-crisis period. The proportionality between the exchange rate and relative money does not hold in any period. The plotted actual and fitted exchange rates for both sub-samples show that the models are able to track the actual exchange rate trend quiet well

The Dynamic Linkages between Islamic Index and the Major Stock Markets: New Evidence from Wavelet time-scale decomposition Analysis

The increase of globalization and financial liberalization along with the recurrence of the financial crises have made the issue of global stock market integration crucial particularly from the view of portfolio diversification. Moreover, an empirical time-scale-varying analysis from the perspective of Islamic stock is still lacking. The Islamic stocks are expected to be theoretically different from the conventional stocks in view of the Shariah-compliant restrictions, smaller and less diversified market. Therefore, this paper makes the first attempt to test the time-scale analysis of the linkages between the international Islamic stock index and six major international stock markets such as, the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, China, and Malaysia. The paper analyzes the cross volatility, comovement, and estimates the Granger causality between the stock markets using the recently applied continuous wavelet transform and maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform. The findings tend to suggest strong linkage between Islamic index and the western markets as compared to the Asian markets. The volatility and comovements between stock indices are higher and unstable during the financial crises. Furthermore, the results indicate the existence of inefficient market, spillover effect of financial crisis, strong causality effects and bi-directional causality between Islamic index and other international indices. As for the policy implications, the international investors should include the Asian market in their investment portfolio, however, the instability and high comovement especially during the crises will limit the investors‟ ability to exploit international diversification. Additionally, the inefficient markets might suggest an arbitrage opportunity for the investors

The Impact of Crude Oil Price on Macroeconomic Variables: New Evidence from Malaysia

An understanding of how volatilities of and correlations between crude oil and macroeconomic variables change over time including their directions and size is of crucial importance for both the domestic and international investors with a view to diversifying their portfolios for hedging against unforeseen risks. This paper is a humble attempt to add value to the existing literature by empirically testing for the ‘time-varying’ and ‘scale dependent’ correlations between selected commodities and selected macroeconomic variables taking Malaysia as a case study. Particularly, by incorporating the scale dependence, it is possible to identify unique portfolio diversification opportunities for different set of investors bearing different investment horizons or stock-holding periods. Our findings tend to suggest that there is a theoretical relationship between the selected macroeconomic variables and the selected commodities and that the crude oil, gold, KLCI, CPI, BLR and T-bill are exogenous but the corn, industrial production and M2 are endogenous. Consistent with these results, our analysis based on the application of Generalised variance decompositions (VDCs) tends to indicate that the gold commodity is the most exogenous variable that drives the other commodities and the Malaysian macroeconomic variables. Finally, the value added stemming from the findings of Continuous Wavelet Transformation (CWT) tends to indicate that an investor who has exposure in crude oil commodity and wants to invest in KLCI, industrial production and treasury bill in Malaysia, should not hold his/her portfolio for more than 8 months in order to obtain diversification benefit

Multi-scale Lead-Lag Relationship between the Stock and Futures Markets: Malaysia as a Case Study

There is a considerable literature relating to a lead-lag relationship between the stock index (spot) and stock index futures markets in developed countries compared to emerging countries. The analysis of this relationship in an emerging market based on a different investment horizon is significant for both academic and trading purposes. In this study, we analyze the lead-lag relationship between stock index and stock index futures in Malaysia. We use a new approach based on the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) and the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The results show variability of the lead-lag relationship across frequency ranges and time scales, and also occasional in-phase behaviour between both markets. The relationships between stock index and stock index futures are shown to evolve over time with non-homogeneous trends across different time scales. Some strong correlations have been found in lead-lag interactions between the markets. The result from this study would provide a better picture of a current derivatives market in emerging countries, specifically in Malaysia. Hopefully it will shed some light in furthering the development of Islamic equity futures within the Islamic capital market, therefore will encourage Islamic asset managers to use derivatives as a hedging tool to protect their funds’ value

Multi-scale Lead-Lag Relationship between the Stock and Futures Markets: Malaysia as a Case Study

There is a considerable literature relating to a lead-lag relationship between the stock index (spot) and stock index futures markets in developed countries compared to emerging countries. The analysis of this relationship in an emerging market based on a different investment horizon is significant for both academic and trading purposes. In this study, we analyze the lead-lag relationship between stock index and stock index futures in Malaysia. We use a new approach based on the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) and the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The results show variability of the lead-lag relationship across frequency ranges and time scales, and also occasional in-phase behaviour between both markets. The relationships between stock index and stock index futures are shown to evolve over time with non-homogeneous trends across different time scales. Some strong correlations have been found in lead-lag interactions between the markets. The result from this study would provide a better picture of a current derivatives market in emerging countries, specifically in Malaysia. Hopefully it will shed some light in furthering the development of Islamic equity futures within the Islamic capital market, therefore will encourage Islamic asset managers to use derivatives as a hedging tool to protect their funds’ value

Causality between Stock Market Index and Macroeconomic Variables: A Case Study for Malaysia

The causal relations and dynamic interactions among macroeconomic variables and stock market index are important in the formulation of a country’s macroeconomic policy. In this study, to investigate the lead-lag relationship between stock market index and macroeconomic variables, we employ several conventional time-series techniques and a recently introduced method – wavelet analysis - to economics and finance. The data used in this paper is the monthly data of the selected macroeconomic variables such as (1) Kuala Lumpur Composite Index, (2) exchange rate, (3) inflation, (4) government bond yield, (5) short-term interest rate and (6) export over the period of January 1996 to September 2013. Our findings tend to suggest that a cointegrating relationship does exist between KLCI and selected macroeconomic variables. The results of the error correction model, the generalized variance decompositions as well as the wavelet cross-correlation analysis suggest that the short-term interest rate, KLCI and government bond yields are exogenous variables; especially, the short-term interest rate is the most leading variable. Policy makers may concentrate on the adjustment and control of the short-term interest rate in order to achieve the desired results for the target economic variables

Causality between Stock Market Index and Macroeconomic Variables: A Case Study for Malaysia

The causal relations and dynamic interactions among macroeconomic variables and stock market index are important in the formulation of a country’s macroeconomic policy. In this study, to investigate the lead-lag relationship between stock market index and macroeconomic variables, we employ several conventional time-series techniques and a recently introduced method – wavelet analysis - to economics and finance. The data used in this paper is the monthly data of the selected macroeconomic variables such as (1) Kuala Lumpur Composite Index, (2) exchange rate, (3) inflation, (4) government bond yield, (5) short-term interest rate and (6) export over the period of January 1996 to September 2013. Our findings tend to suggest that a cointegrating relationship does exist between KLCI and selected macroeconomic variables. The results of the error correction model, the generalized variance decompositions as well as the wavelet cross-correlation analysis suggest that the short-term interest rate, KLCI and government bond yields are exogenous variables; especially, the short-term interest rate is the most leading variable. Policy makers may concentrate on the adjustment and control of the short-term interest rate in order to achieve the desired results for the target economic variables

The Impact of Crude Oil Price on Islamic Stock Indices of South East Asian (SEA) Countries: A Comparative Analysis

An understanding of how volatilities of and correlations between commodity returns and Islamic stock indices change over time including their directions and size are of crucial importance for both the domestic and international investors with a view to diversifying their portfolios for hedging against unforeseen risks. This paper is the first attempt to add value to the existing literature by empirically testing for the ‘time-varying’ and ‘scale dependent’ volatilities of and correlations between the selected Islamic stock indices of South East Asian countries and selected commodities for enhancing portfolio diversification benefits. The methodologies appropriate to achieving the objectives were the recently introduced dynamic conditional correlations and wavelet decompositions. Our findings tend to suggest that there is a theoretical relationship between the selected Islamic stock indices and the selected commodities and that the Islamic stock indices of Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia are leading the other Islamic stock indices and the commodities (as evidenced in the Vector Error-Correction models). Consistent with these results, our analysis based on the application of the recent wavelet technique MODWT tends to indicate that the Singapore Islamic index is leading the other Islamic indices and the commodities. From the point of view of portfolio diversification benefits based on the extent of dynamic correlations between variables, our results tend to suggest that an investor should be aware that the Philippine Islamic stock index is less correlated with the crude oil in the short run (as evidenced in the continuous wavelet transform analysis) and that an investor holding the crude oil can gain by including the Malaysian Islamic stock index in his/her portfolio (as evidenced in the Dynamic conditional correlations analysis)

Diversification in Crude Oil and Other Commodities: A Comparative Analysis

An understanding of how volatilities of and correlations between commodity returns change over time including their directions (positive or negative) and size (stronger or weaker) is of crucial importance for both the domestic and international investors with a view to diversifying their portfolios for hedging against unforeseen risks. This paper is a humble attempt to add value to the existing literature by empirically testing the ‘time-varying’ and ‘scale dependent’ volatilities of and correlations of the sample commodities. Particularly, by incorporating scale dependence, it is able to identify unique portfolio diversification opportunities for different set of investors bearing different investment horizons or holding periods. In order to address the research objectives, we have applied the vector error-correction test and several recently introduced econometric techniques such as the Maximum Overlap Discrete Wavelet Transform (MODWT), Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) and Multivariate GARCH – Dynamic Conditional Correlation. The data used in this paper is the daily data of seven commodities (crude oil, gas, gold, silver, copper, soybean and corn) prices from 1 January 2007 until 31 December 2013. Our findings tend to suggest that there is a theoretical relationship between the sample commodities (as evidenced in the cointegration tests) and that the oil, gold and corn variables are leading the other commodities (as evidenced in the Vector Error-Correction models). Consistent with these results, our analysis based on the application of the recent wavelet technique MODWT tends to indicate that the gold price return is leading the other commodities. From the point of view of portfolio diversification benefits based on the extent of dynamic correlations between variables, our results tend to suggest that an investor should be aware that the gas price return is less correlated with the crude oil in the short run (as evidenced in the continuous wavelet transform analysis), but due to its high volatility, it offsets its benefit of diversification in the long run and that an investor holding the crude oil can gain by including corn in his/her portfolio (as evidenced in the Dynamic conditional correlations analysis). Our analysis based on the recent applications of the wavelet decompositions and the dynamic conditional correlations helps us unveil the portfolio diversification opportunities for the investors with heterogeneous investment horizons or holding stocks over different periods