Corporate social responsibility, institutional investors’ ownership, financial restatements and sell-side analysts’ stock recommendations

In Malaysia, the capital market regulators have recently given prominent attention to issues such as corporate responsibility (CSR), shareholder activism and integrity in financial reporting by issuing the Sustainability Reporting Guide (2015) and Malaysian Code for Institutional Investors (2014). Given the importance of these issues, this study examines whether CSR, institutional investors’ ownership, and financial restatements influence stock recommendations made by analysts. It employs a dataset from a panel of 285 Malaysian public listed companies (PLCs) for the period 2008 to 2013 (737 company-year observations). The results show a positive and significant influence of CSR reporting on the stock recommendations, which means that analysts issue more favourable stock recommendations for companies with higher CSR disclosures. Further, the findings indicate that the presence of both transient and dedicated institutional investors are viewed positively by analysts. In particular, the results indicate that analysts issue more favourable stock recommendations for the companies with higher levels of transient and dedicated institutional investors’ ownership. In addition, the results also show that analysts tend to give favourable stock recommendations for companies that restated their financial statements, contrary to expectation. These findings imply that analysts tend to echo government initiatives by giving favourable stock recommendations to companies with greater engagement in CSR activities and the ability to attract institutional investors. The findings also suggest that analysts view financial restatements as informative rather than opportunistic. Overall, these findings should be useful to PLCs and policymakers. PLCs might use the findings to understand the preferences of sell-side analysts towards CSR engagement. Furthermore, policymakers might use it to recognize the important role played by institutional investors in monitoring investee companies and to understand how analysts perceive and evaluate restated companies

An overview of Capital Market Development Fund-Bursa Research Scheme (CBRS)

Capital Market Development Fund—Bursa Research Scheme (CBRS) which is administered by Bursa Malaysia aims to offer timely information to interested investors about registered listed firms through research done by participating analysts.This paper provides an overview about this scheme, including the trend of the participating listed firms and research houses, since it was introduced in 2005.The detailed analysis shows that the number of participating listed firms and research houses in CBRS declined in the later stage of the scheme, raising concerns over its sustainability.It can be concluded that some of the participating listed firms and research houses discontinued their involvement in the CBRS.The possible reason might be the costs outweigh the benefits enjoyed by the participating firms

Aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition of silver thin film electrodes for electrochemical detection of 2-nitrophenol

Present work reports a simple, cost-effective and facile approach for electrochemical sensing of 2-nitrophenol (2-NP) as the model analyte using silver thin film electrodes. Thickness controlled silver thin films are grown on ITO glass substrates at 400°C for varying deposition times of 10–45 minutes using methanol solution of silver triflouroacetate (Ag(CF3COO)), via aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD). XRD, XPS, SEM and EDX analysis of the films verified the presence of crystalline and phase pure elemental silver with micro/nanometer dimensions whereas a growth pattern from spherical nanoparticles to continuous thin films is observed over time. All Ag-electrodes were used to investigate the electrochemical behavior of 2-NP by cyclic voltammetry (CV) while the quantitative profiling was done by LSV. The results indicate that the Ag-electrode developed in 30 min manifested excellent electrocatalytic activity toward 2-NP reduction, thereby lowering the reduction overpotential and increasing the reduction current which is attributed to the percolated metallic network in its micro/nanostructure. This particular electrode exhibited a dynamic range = 50–450 μM, detection limit = 12 nM, and high selectivity from potential interfering agents, a performance much better than the available thin film sensors and Ag-disk electrode

Effects of pre-operative isolation on postoperative pulmonary complications after elective surgery: an international prospective cohort study an international prospective cohort study

We aimed to determine the impact of pre-operative isolation on postoperative pulmonary complications after elective surgery during the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We performed an international prospective cohort study including patients undergoing elective surgery in October 2020. Isolation was defined as the period before surgery during which patients did not leave their house or receive visitors from outside their household. The primary outcome was postoperative pulmonary complications, adjusted in multivariable models for measured confounders. Pre-defined sub-group analyses were performed for the primary outcome. A total of 96,454 patients from 114 countries were included and overall, 26,948 (27.9%) patients isolated before surgery. Postoperative pulmonary complications were recorded in 1947 (2.0%) patients of which 227 (11.7%) were associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Patients who isolated pre-operatively were older, had more respiratory comorbidities and were more commonly from areas of high SARS-CoV-2 incidence and high-income countries. Although the overall rates of postoperative pulmonary complications were similar in those that isolated and those that did not (2.1% vs 2.0%, respectively), isolation was associated with higher rates of postoperative pulmonary complications after adjustment (adjusted OR 1.20, 95%CI 1.05–1.36, p = 0.005). Sensitivity analyses revealed no further differences when patients were categorised by: pre-operative testing; use of COVID-19-free pathways; or community SARS-CoV-2 prevalence. The rate of postoperative pulmonary complications increased with periods of isolation longer than 3 days, with an OR (95%CI) at 4–7 days or ≥ 8 days of 1.25 (1.04–1.48), p = 0.015 and 1.31 (1.11–1.55), p = 0.001, respectively. Isolation before elective surgery might be associated with a small but clinically important increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. Longer periods of isolation showed no reduction in the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. These findings have significant implications for global provision of elective surgical care. We aimed to determine the impact of pre-operative isolation on postoperative pulmonary complications after elective surgery during the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We performed an international prospective cohort study including patients undergoing elective surgery in October 2020. Isolation was defined as the period before surgery during which patients did not leave their house or receive visitors from outside their household. The primary outcome was postoperative pulmonary complications, adjusted in multivariable models for measured confounders. Pre-defined sub-group analyses were performed for the primary outcome. A total of 96,454 patients from 114 countries were included and overall, 26,948 (27.9%) patients isolated before surgery. Postoperative pulmonary complications were recorded in 1947 (2.0%) patients of which 227 (11.7%) were associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Patients who isolated pre-operatively were older, had more respiratory comorbidities and were more commonly from areas of high SARS-CoV-2 incidence and high-income countries. Although the overall rates of postoperative pulmonary complications were similar in those that isolated and those that did not (2.1% vs 2.0%, respectively), isolation was associated with higher rates of postoperative pulmonary complications after adjustment (adjusted OR 1.20, 95%CI 1.05–1.36, p = 0.005). Sensitivity analyses revealed no further differences when patients were categorised by: pre-operative testing; use of COVID-19-free pathways; or community SARS-CoV-2 prevalence. The rate of postoperative pulmonary complications increased with periods of isolation longer than 3 days, with an OR (95%CI) at 4–7 days or ≥ 8 days of 1.25 (1.04–1.48), p = 0.015 and 1.31 (1.11–1.55), p = 0.001, respectively. Isolation before elective surgery might be associated with a small but clinically important increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. Longer periods of isolation showed no reduction in the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. These findings have significant implications for global provision of elective surgical care