Issue #3 (Volume 19 2022)

Investment in commodity markets in India accelerated after 2007; this was accompanied by large price variability, hence, it becomes imperative to measure commodity price risk precisely. It becomes equally important to study the relationship between commodity price variability and the stock market. Hence, this study aims to calculate the tail risk of highly traded Indian commodity futures returns using the conditional EVT-VaR method for risk measurement. Secondly, the linkage between commodity markets and the stock market is also studied using the Delta CoVaR method. Results highlight the following points. There is risk transfer from the extreme increase/decrease in crude oil futures returns to the Nifty Index returns. Both extreme price increase or decrease of crude oil futures driven either by financial or a combination of financial and economic shocks affect the stock market. Zinc and Natural gas futures are not linked to the stock market, which means they can be useful in portfolio diversification. The findings suggest that, in Indian commodity markets, EVT-VaR is a useful tool for measuring risk. Only Crude oil futures shocks affect the stock market, and extreme integration between them becomes more prominent when oil shocks are driven by financial factors. Commodities other than Crude oil are not integrated with stock markets in India.

This study seeks to expand upon existing empirical results about the effect of debt on corporate profitability. Indicators Debt ratio (DR) and Return on Equity (ROE) were used to examine the relationship between debt and corporate profitability. The input data for the analysis represented the financial data of companies operating in the construction industry in Slovakia. The total sample included 7,529 companies. After excluding companies with extreme values, the sample consisted of 6,402 companies. Indicators ROE and DR were used in the given research. To determine the debt threshold, a threshold regression model was applied. Using this model, a nonlinear relationship between debt and profitability was found. An indebtedness threshold has also been identified. Once the threshold is exceeded, the positive relationship between indebtedness and ROE changes to negative. The results, in particular those which indicate a significant non-linear relationship between debt and profitability, are particularly useful for all stakeholders (internal and external) interacting with analyzed companies.

Acknowledgments
The research was prepared within the grant scheme VEGA 1/0741/20 – The application of variant methods in detecting symptoms of possible bankruptcy of Slovak businesses in order to ensure their sustainable development.

India witnessed the first major wave of COVID-19 in 2020. The second major wave during April 2021 caused a higher number of infected cases across the country. These waves of COVID-19, rising cases and lockdown announcements severely impacted the Indian economy. Moreover, huge volatility was observed in the prices of oil and exchange rates during the similar period. Thus, this study tests the effect of selected macroeconomic variables and the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of the Indian stock market. Using co-integration and the vector error correction model on the NIFTY 100 firms, the findings suggest co-integration and long-term association among variables. The Indian stock market experienced an inverse connection with the exchange rate volatility; the coefficient value is 57.582. The exchange rates rose heavily (with a value of Indian rupee being 76.95 against US dollar) with the onset of COVID-19 cases. Further, these cases do hurt the sentiments of the stock market; however, the relationship is relatively infirm (the value is 0.22) as compared to that of the exchange rate. The accumulated major negative influence of COVID-19 on the economy had a weak impact on the stock market. In conclusion, it should be noted that after the first wave, businesses were more prepared and therefore incorporated the required changes that saw them through the second wave.

Acknowledgment
The infrastructural support provided by the FORE School of Management, New Delhi in completing this paper is gratefully acknowledged.

The digitalization of financial services has led to the emergence of new, innovative services and providers. This paper first examines which actors are defined in the related literature as members of the Fintech ecosystem and what their roles and responsibilities are. A common element in the literature reviewed is that traditional financial institutions, startups, regulators, the investment community, and technology developers are identified as actors in Fintech ecosystems. The analysis then highlights how the large technology companies that are referred to in the literature as Big Tech (Meta (Facebook), Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) have become active in the financial services sector. It also examines which comparative advantages have led to the possibility for Big Tech companies to become third-party and then independent providers of financial services. As a result of their previous activities (software development, marketing, social media, online retail, and content services), they have acquired both a significant global customer base and outstanding IT development capabilities. These factors have enabled them to interact with former members of the Fintech ecosystem. They have formed partnerships with traditional financial institutions, then become their competitors, and they look to Fintech startups as acquisition targets. These factors determine Big Tech companies to become part of the Fintech ecosystem as a competitive service provider. From a practical point of view, these phenomena emphasize the need for the regulatory efforts on Big Tech companies.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is quite a new concept to business and society in Vietnam. Information on CSR reflects a firm’s commitment to ethical behavior in its activities and reputation. However, it is questioned whether the information disclosure has any relationship with firm performance. Employing panel regression of about 200 listed firms on the Vietnam Stock Exchange and space-based measurement of CSR disclosure, the study confirms a positive impact of CSR disclosure on firm performance. Firms use CSR disclosures to indirectly improve their performance. Firms that disclose CSR with greater degree of information experience higher marginal profitability. This finding supports stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory, and signaling theory in using CSR disclosure as a tool to improve firms’ reputation and transparency, maintain long-term operation, and hence improve financial performance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, firms that engage more in CSR will suffer less from the pandemic than firms that do not. Thus, the study implies a promising CSR picture for corporations in Vietnam. Investors, policy makers and any related authorities can utilize these findings to get more insight into the business through CSR disclosures.

This paper examines the relationship between traditional and ESG stock market indices and the net international investment position for the case of Austria and Ukraine. For these purposes, the following methods are used: variance analysis, ANOVA analysis, correlation analysis, VAR analysis, R/S analysis, and Granger causality test. According to the results, ESG indices are less volatile than conventional ones. Based on the correlation analysis, it is concluded that there is a significant direct connection between ESG indices and their traditional counterparts (0.98 for Austria and 0.68 for Ukraine). A substantial level of persistence in Austria’s investment position indicates the possibility of using autoregression models for forecasting. The results of the net investment position modelling for the case of Austria showed a statistically significant impact of stock market indices on the net investment position. But for the case of Ukraine, this impact is insignificant. This is indirect evidence in favor of poor performance of the Ukrainian stock market. Further development of Ukrainian stock market is required, because Austrian experience showed that stock market can be used as a transmission mechanism in boosting investment position both within conventional approach and ESG.

Acknowledgment
Alex Plastun, Mario Situm, Inna Makarenko, and Yulia Serpeninova gratefully acknowledge support from Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0122U002659).

This study explored the influence of the governance cost on financial service efficiency in Nigeria. The recurrent collapse of reputable companies and banks due to agency problems have motivated this investigation. The study empirically sampled 40 financial service firms from the 50 firms registered on the stock market. The study adopted an ex-post-facto research design. Data was collected using secondary sources from the firms’ annual reports to determine the influence the governance cost has on Nigeria’s financial service efficiency for nine years (2012–2020). Also, the study utilized the Panel Tobit regression to test the hypothesis. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to ascertain the aggregate governance cost, and the proxies were directors’ fees, auditors’ fees, CEO compensation, and chairman fee. At the same time, financial service analysis was derived using the Input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique under the constant return to scale (CRS) assumption. Consequently, findings from the study show a significant and positive influence of governance costs on the efficiency of financial services. The study, therefore, concludes that the current governance cost of the sampled firms drives efficiency within the sampled firms, and increasing the governance cost, based on the reviews on corporate governance structures, will not harm the efficiency of financial services. However, the consistent increase over time will harm efficiency. Thus, the study recommends an internal balance on the pay structure within the financial services.

Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge Covenant University for solely providing the platform for this research and for fully sponsoring the publication of this research work.

This paper explores the impact of cash holdings on stock returns in small and medium enterprises. The sample includes 24 SMEs listed on the Egyptian Nile Exchange, excluding service firms, with a total of 96 observations from 2016 to 2019. Data was collected from financial statements and reports obtained through an information dissemination company in Egypt. This study uses a panel data analysis with comparing all results via ordinary least squares and the generalized method of moments. The findings show a statistically significant negative effect of cash holding on stock returns in small and medium enterprises on the Egyptian Nile Exchange. Further, the evidence shows that firms with higher levels of cash holding have higher investment alternatives and then lower stock returns. This result supports the agency theory that an increase in cash holding leads to managers exploiting cash resources to achieve personal benefits, thus increasing agency costs, lowering investment efficiency, and therefore lowering stock returns. The results support the trade-off between risk and return by using cash holding to finance operational activities and investing in higher investment alternatives and then lower stock returns.

Recycling has substantial environmental and economic benefits, but the recycling industry is relatively inefficient. Approximately half of all recyclable material is not actually recycled, and this inefficiency is economically and environmentally costly. This paper investigates the potential for exchange-traded futures on recycled materials to increase efficiency for the recycling industry by improving the market quality for firms that buy and sell recycled materials. The aim of this study is to statistically analyze a novel data set of prices for recycled materials to demonstrate the potential efficiency gains to introducing exchange-traded futures on recycled materials. The theoretical basis for this financial innovation is numerous previous studies showing that introducing exchange-traded derivatives improves the market quality of the underlying asset. The results of the analysis show that price volatility of recycled materials is generally high, with monthly standard deviation greater than 6%. Price volatility of recycled materials is excessive compared to price volatility of analogous new materials. Also, stock price volatility of waste management firms is positively related to price volatility in recycled materials. Price volatility of recycled materials explains 12% of the excess stock price volatility for waste management firms. This paper includes a practical discussion of proposed specifications and standards for these new financial contracts and plans for further research studies. Along with previous studies on the listing of exchange-traded derivatives, the conclusion of the statistical analysis is that there are large potential economic and environmental benefits to listing exchange-traded futures on recycled materials.

Indonesia has a thin capitalization policy since 2015. It restricts the maximum interest expense that can be deductible from corporate tax payable. This paper discusses the association between boards with military background and the debt policy of firms, taking into account the thin capitalization policy. This study used a sample of 2,330 firm-year observations from companies listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2010–2019. A moderated analysis regression was employed to analyze the association of each variable. The result reveals a significant positive correlation with a t-value of 2.14 at a confidence level of 95% between military-connected firms and debt policy. The same correlation also occurred between board of commissioners with the military background and debt policy with a t-value of 2.18 at a 95% confidence level. Meanwhile, the correlation between these variables became significantly negative after the implementation of thin capitalization policy. CEM and Heckman’s two-stage method were used to validate the findings. This study is for a listed company to consider the appointment of military background in a board of commissioner position after a period of thin capitalization policy.

The military actions in Ukraine have actualized the transformation and revision of existing approaches to assessing the country’s economic security. Financial security, which is considered in this paper through its standard components such as financial sector security, stock market security, debt and budget security, has a significant effect on the formation of economic security. At the same time, digitalization in the financial sector was identified as a new component that provides access to financial resources even in the context of the deployment of hostilities in Ukraine. Therefore, this study assessed the effect of the state of financial security, taking into account the importance of financial digitalization for the economic security of Ukraine.
Based on quarterly data for the period 2015–2021, 42 indicators were analyzed, which were grouped according to the relevant components of financial security, and their integral indicators were determined using the Harrington method. A factor analysis of the formation of economic security was carried out using the principal components analysis, and an integral indicator of a country’s economic security was calculated based on the Kinney multiplicative convolution. The integral indicator of economic security for 2025–2021 doubled and amounted to 0.63 units, which was due to the increased influence of financial digitalization processes, all other components either slowly decreased or were stable. Thus, the reserve of economic security that was formed during this period, including due to the intensive digitalization of the financial sector, allowed Ukraine to survive the first weeks of the war and ensure the functioning of the financial system.

Acknowledgment
Comments from the Editor and anonymous referees have been gratefully acknowledged. Inna Shkolnyk and Yevhenii Kozmenko gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0122U000774 “Digitalization and transparency of public, corporate and personal finance: the impact on innovation development and national security”).

This paper examines the impacts of 29 opinion polls from three prominent media sources on 825 firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange during the 2020 Taiwan presidential election campaign. In the election, the challenger Han adopted unprecedented election tactics of asking his supporters to mislead pollsters on their voting intentions, separating the sample polls published before and after the start of this election tactic into normal and chaotic periods. This study assumes that stock markets respond positively to the increased incumbent polling leads due to the reduced probability of future changes to economic policy only for the credible normal polls. A standard event study in a 3-day event window, one day before and after the event day, is employed to analyze the short polling effects on stock returns during the sample period. The estimation window is 120 days. The results indicate that market returns are positively associated with the changes in the incumbent’s lead only for the television’s normal polls, and markets react more strongly to decreased polling leads than to increased polling leads for television polls, as presumed by the uncertain information hypothesis. Analysis of the impact of polling during the chaotic period on investor sentiment indicates that the market has positive reactions to both positive and negative polling changes, suggesting the tactic creates confusion in the market. This paper concludes that markets may react differently to opinion polls depending on their source and candidates’ election tactics.

This paper aims to analyze the daily price discovery of Bahar-e-Azadi Gold Coin (GC) spot and futures contracts in Iran, using the fractionally cointegrated error-correction model (FCECM). The residuals of the FCECM are modeled by the BEKK-GARCH specification to calculate the time-varying conditional information share between GC spot and futures prices. Using data covering December 21, 2008 to April 14, 2018, the paper establishes the novel finding that the GC spot and futures price series are fractionally integrated of orders 0.98347 and 0.95169, respectively. This implies the long memory behavior in the price series. Further, the results show that the series are fractionally cointegrated of order 0.542. The empirical findings from the methodology indicate that in the price discovery process, the GC spot market dominates the GC futures market. This analysis is robust to alternative construction of futures price series and sub-samples decomposed based on structural breaks. One possible explanation could be the higher trading volume associated with the GC spot market compared to the GC futures market. Incompleteness and market frictions also can cause a delay in the process of information incorporation into the futures market and may discourage market players from trading in these markets.

Non-GAAP earnings have received attention recently. Existing literature suggests CEOs’ educational backgrounds affect the financial reporting quality. Thus, the paper analyzes whether the educational background of CEOs affects the disclosure of non-GAAP earnings. Using logit regression to examine the probability of non-GAAP earnings disclosures, this study finds the coefficient value of MBA is 0.4171, which suggests that CEOs with an MBA degree are more likely to disclose non-GAAP earnings than other CEOs. In addition, the moderating effect of audit committee quality on the association between CEO educational backgrounds and non-GAAP earnings disclosures is investigated. The coefficient value of MBA×ACC_QUA is –2.809, which suggests that audit committee quality negatively moderates a positive association between MBA-holding CEOs and non-GAAP earnings disclosures. By focusing on a company’s non-GAAP earnings, this study contributes to the financial reporting literature. The results provide evidence that CEO education backgrounds and audit committee quality influence firms’ non-GAAP earnings disclosures.

Acknowledgment
The author acknowledges the financial support of the National Science and Technology Council, R.O.C. (Award number MOST 111-2410-H-035-048-).

This study aims to examine the relationship between tax amnesty on company value, analyze the role of tax avoidance behavior to determine the direct and indirect relationship of tax amnesty on company value. The population of this study are manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange after the implementation of the tax amnesty in Indonesia in 2017–2020. The sample includes 54 companies in order to obtain 216 observational data points. A multiple linear regression model was used to analyze the relationship between the variables. The tests carried out include partial coefficient tests and model accuracy tests. The results of the study reveal that tax amnesty increases the company’s efforts to do tax avoidance. Second, the tax amnesty granted by the government could increase the value of a company. Third, success in tax avoidance efforts has an impact on increasing the value of a company. Fourth, tax avoidance mediates the relationship between tax amnesty and firm value. These results indicate that although tax amnesty can increase company value, it does not guarantee that taxpayers (companies) will stop tax avoidance.

Britain’s decision to exit the EU lead to disruptions in global markets. This study investigates the change in the return and volatility spillover pattern due to the repercussions of the Brexit vote between the US, France, the UK, Germany, and India’s 10-year government bond yields by applying the VAR and GARCH-BEKK models. The findings demonstrate a substantial rise in the return spillover to India and USA 10-year government bond yields following the Brexit vote compared to the pre-Brexit vote era. In addition, the results showed evidence of unidirectional volatility spillover from India to France, bidirectional volatility spillover between the USA and India, and unidirectional volatility spillover from the UK to India 10-year government bond market post-Brexit vote. However, there was no interconnection between these markets before the Brexit vote. Therefore, the Brexit vote did affect and significantly increased the linkage between the US, France, the UK, and India’s 10-year government bond market. The increase in correlation in India-US, India-UK, and India-France’s 10-year government bond markets will help predict and have an important implication for hedgers, decision-makers, and portfolio managers if similar political events occur in the future.

Corrections to the article made on October 17, 2022
The previous list of authors Richard Apau, Leward Jeke was changed to Richard Apau, Leward Jeke, Peter Moores-Pitt, Paul-Francois Muzindutsi, October 17, 2022. Explanation in the documents: Authors contributions, Authors explanations.

This study analyzes the effect of performance manipulation on mutual fund flows under different market conditions to provide explanations to the increased flow of investors’ funds to persistently underperforming active mutual fund managers in South Africa. The study employs a system GMM technique to analyze panel data of 52 South African actively managed equity mutual funds for the 2006–2019 period. From the analysis, it is found that past fund flows and fund size constitute a set of fund-level factors with predictive influences on fund flows, while market risk exerts systemic effect on the flow of investors’ assets to fund managers. The results show that market conditions do not impact the relationship between mutual fund flows and performance manipulation, which implies that manipulation strategies implemented by fund managers do not engender increased funds’ flow from asset owners. This study thus concludes that other non-performance factors drive convexity in the relationship between fund flows and performance in South Africa.

This study examined the influence of financial sector development on FDI inflows in BRICS using panel data (1991–2020) analysis methods. The influence of the complementarity between the financial sector and human capital development on FDI inflows was also examined in the context of BRICS using the same data set and econometric methodologies. The advantage of this study is that the results are used as a basis by BRICS countries to develop financial sector development policies that attract significant FDI inflows. Financial sector development (model 2 and 3 of the pooled ordinary least squares approach) significantly enhanced FDI inflows. Human capital development (model 3 of the fully modified ordinary least squares) was found to have had a significant positive effect on FDI inflows in BRICS group of countries. The combination between financial and human capital development under (1) model 1 of the fully modified ordinary least squares and (2) models 2 and 3 of the pooled ordinary least squares (POLS) was observed to have significantly enhanced FDI inflows in BRICS. The study outlines the financial and human capital development recommendations that need to be implemented to facilitate more FDI inflows.

Acknowledgment
Kunofiwa Tsaurai is grateful for the moral support from his employer, University of South Africa.

Investor sentiment is the result of trading behavior and irrational beliefs of investors leading to high volatility and market mispricing. This review aims to study the entire spectrum of articles in the domain of investor sentiment using a bibliometric analysis approach. To this end, the study analyzes a total of 1,919 articles published in the Scopus database between 1979 and 2022. The review uncovers major themes, leading authors, influencing articles, trend topics, top contributing countries, and affiliations. The review shows that the research in the domain of investor sentiment is growing exponentially with an annual growth rate of 15.88%, and the year 2020 witnessed the highest number of scientific productions accounting for 252 (13.68%) total publications. The results display that the USA and China are leading countries in terms of the total contribution and volume of studies from respective authors. The review also reveals that existing research in the field has mainly focused on themes such as market efficiency, asset pricing, stock returns, sentiment analysis, IPO underpricing, overreaction, and volatility, whereas Covid-19 and Bitcoin depicted as emerging themes from recent scholarly works.

This paper investigates whether the COVID-19 cases and death rates affect the dynamic correlation of corporate-government bond yields. Therefore, this study uses the daily corporate bond data with different ratings of bonds along with the COVID-19 data at both the US and global levels. Using the quantile regression approach, it produces the following results. First, the impact of daily cases differs from that of death rates both locally and globally. Second, the impact of local cases and death cases on the government-AAA yields correlation at a given quantile tends to reverse when the BBB bonds are used in the analysis. Third, global death rates significantly affect the correlation series the most at the higher quantiles. Lastly, AAA-rated bonds show higher sensitivity to COVID-19 cases and death rates than BBB-rated bonds. This finding indicates that relatively high-quality bonds are more susceptible to the pandemic period and thus calls for careful evaluation of assets included in investors’ portfolios. This study assumes that local COVID-19 data provide a better implication for constructing bond portfolios than global data. That is, their economic impact depends on the rating of the bond and tends to vary more across correlation quantiles.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not the issuing of debt securities and the effectiveness of profit management affect Jordanian banks’ operational performance. The assessments are carried out with the help of data obtained from the financial statements of commercial banks that are listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) from 2016 to 2020. Estimation of the regression equation is performed with the help of the non-linear analysis. The study’s findings showed that the issuance of debt securities has a significant (0.02) influence on banks’ operational performance. Furthermore, profit efficiency has an insignificant (0.363) influence on banks’ operational performance. Overall, the findings of the study are consistent with those of earlier empirical research. The most important contribution of this paper is that the determination of debt security issuers’ prospects associated with the Jordanian economy can be improved, and financial institutions and commercial banks can take corrective measures to reduce variation and increase development.

In calculating the transfer price of a transaction for goods, services, intangible assets, or financial transactions, a corporation has a policy known as transfer pricing. Due to its widespread abuse, transfer pricing is frequently associated with negative connotations. For example, this practice manipulates prices so that it has the potential to harm state revenues. This study uses tax expenses as a moderating variable to evaluate how intangible assets, debt covenants, and bonus systems affect the company’s decisions to use transfer pricing. This paper uses quantitative research approach with multiple linear regression analysis. The data used are panel data, consisting of cross-section data from 23 international manufacturing businesses on the Indonesian Stock Exchange, and time-series data from 2017 to 2019. Based on the tests, only the debt covenant variable significantly positively affects the transfer pricing action (sig. 0.000). In contrast, the intangible asset and the bonus mechanism variables are insignificant for transfer pricing. Furthermore, tax charges cannot mitigate the impact of intangible assets on transfer pricing decisions. However, tax charges may be able to mitigate the debt covenant in a way that makes the company’s decision to use transfer pricing stronger (sig. 0.024). Additionally, the bonus mechanism may be negatively moderated by tax expenses, weakening the company’s decisions to use transfer pricing (sig. 0.045).

This study assessed the factors that determine the financial management behavior of administrators in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Nigeria. The rising cases of financial mismanagement, which was associated with the financial management behavior of top administrators in these SOEs, prompted this study. It is believed that identifying the factors that determine the financial management behavior of these administrators would help to find solutions to the problem. Based on the multistage sampling technique, 385 top administrators from the SOEs at the federal level in Nigeria participated in the survey. Quantitative analysis was used to analyze the data and the results show that income, family size, and financial literacy are the most important factors affecting the financial management behavior of the administrators. It is recommended that there should be an improvement in income and other working conditions of the administrators in the SOEs since income has been confirmed to be an important shift factor of financial management behavior. In the same vein, given the role of family size, it is recommended that efforts on population reduction should be intensified. Finally, financial literacy should be given priority in checkmating irresponsible financial management behavior.

This study empirically examines the factors that influence the level of disclosure of local government financial statements, with audit opinion as a moderating variable. The ratio of financial independence, capital expenditure, intergovernmental revenue, and legislative size are independent variables in this study. The dependent variable is the degree of disclosure of local government financial statements (LKPD). The population used in this study is the financial statements of local governments in Indonesia that have been audited by BPK RI. The sample on this study consisted of 338 district/city governments on Java Island in 2018–2020 with purposive sampling. The test carried out is Multiple Linear Regression analysis using STATA version 16. Based on the results that have been analyzed, it can be concluded that the ratio of financial independence and intergovernmental revenue has a significant effect on the level of LKPD disclosure. Meanwhile, capital expenditure and legislative size have no significant effect on the level of LKPD disclosure. Audit opinion moderated the ratio of financial independence and legislative size on the level of disclosure of LKPD. Meanwhile, audit opinion does not moderate capital expenditure and intergovernmental revenue on the level of LKPD disclosure. This study provides information on the factors that influence the level of disclosure of LKPD in local governments, both districts/cities. A high level of LKPD disclosure indicates an accountability and transparency carried out by local governments.

Covid-19 has an impact on stock investment, especially in Indonesia, marked by the decline in the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. During the Covid-19 era, there was a lot of negative information about the uncertainty of the market, which made investors irrational about the choice of stocks in the portfolio. So this research will have a hypothesis that the High Volatility stock group will be the best portfolio in Covid-19 conditions. The sample used is the Group of stocks that have the largest market capitalization value in JCI. Stocks with large market caps are chosen because of one of the indicators of blue chip stock. The sample will be divided into three portfolio groups, High Volatility, Moderate Volatility, and Low Volatility. The results obtained that High Volatility became the best portfolio during the Covid-19 period. The results of this study prove that the group of stocks with High Volatility will get positive returns and sharpe performance results are the highest and positive, compared to moderate volatility and low volatility portfolios. This result arises because stocks with High Volatility are subject to large price fluctuations and in this situation, investors can invest in these stocks in a short time frame. The short-term process is carried out regularly so that it can be in accordance with investors' expectations for investments in the portfolio.

The cryptocurrency market is not regulated, people and companies wishing to invest in cryptocurrency do not have the same protection as when investing in other assets. In the absence of information and regulatory laws, investors should decide if cryptocurrencies make sense for their financial goals and what kind of investment strategy to choose not to go bankrupt. The aim of the study is to determine the probability of “tail events” and to assess in this way the probability of bankruptcy when investing in cryptocurrency using the Monte Carlo method. The analysis is carried out on the period from September 1, 2014 up to July 1, 2022. Despite the fact that today there are more than 10,000 types of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin was chosen to assess the probability of bankruptcy. The reason is that Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency and its data is stored in a long-term history, which allows testing a long-term investment strategy. Besides, Bitcoin has not gone through a period of persistent inflation that makes the result of testing a short-term investment strategy more reliable. To date, there are around 25 million Bitcoin holders, representing 42.2% of the crypto market. Almost all cryptocurrencies have been proven to follow Bitcoin. The probability of bankruptcy for a short-term cryptocurrency investment strategy is about 17%-23%. For a long-term cryptocurrency investment strategy, the probability of bankruptcy fluctuates from 13% to 16%. Contrary to popular belief, investors looking to avoid bankruptcy should prefer a long-term strategy. The best way for cryptocurrency investors to protect themselves from bankruptcy is to alternate long and short investment periods.

The study examines the dynamics and determinants of target capital structures among manufacturing firms listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange during the period from 2012 to 2021. The study is motivated by the disparity in the Speed of Adjustment (SOA) to target leverage, which is influenced by firm-specific attributes largely dependent on macroeconomic indices. Therefore, understanding the determinants of SOA to target leverage is germane because no two macro-economic environments are the same. A longitudinal research design is used with a population of 75 manufacturing firms. The sample consists of 42 firms, drawn using a simple random technique. Secondary data is sourced from the annual report. Generalized Method of Moments is the estimation technique. The result shows that manufacturing firms adjust to a target capital structure with a high speed of 72%. This confirms the application of dynamic trade-off theory among listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Profitability, firm size, and asset tangibility are significant determinants of SOA to a target capital structure, confirming pecking order, agency, and static trade-off theories, respectively. Tax shelter and growth were not significant determinants. The study concludes that there is evidence of dynamic adjustment to the optimal capital structure of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Governments and policymakers in firms should make effective policies that aid speedy access to long-term funds by these firms to increase their SOA to target capital structure.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between oil prices and oil production capacity and financial market performance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and how oil prices and oil production capacity influence the decision making and uncertainty factors in Saudi Arabia’s financial markets. The key variables considered are oil prices and oil production capacity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Other variables such as foreign direct investment decisions and domestic investment decisions are adopted to explore their impact and reaction to the various risks identified. Therefore, data was collected from online sources to analyze qualitative and quantitative information to understand risks, uncertainties and decision-making considerations. The findings of this paper indicate that rising oil prices increase the value of the Saudi Arabian financial market.
The study showed that the diversification of the investor portfolio increases the stability of Saudi Arabia’s financial market. Also, the KSA’s financial market volatility primarily reflects oil price fluctuations, and the Saudi Arabian oil production capacity directly affects its financial market performance. Saudi Arabia’s oil production was also found to pose insignificant risk to long-term economic growth and stability, thereby putting investors’ long-term investments at risk. The study also showed that investors in Saudi Arabia’s financial market fail to objectively analyze risks by focusing on short-term high-profit margins from oil prices.

Acknowledgment
All authors have contributed equally to this paper.

Herding has a history of igniting large, irrational market ups and downs, usually based on a lack of fundamental support. Intuitively, most herds start with an external shock. This empirical study seeks to detect shock-induced herding and the creation of nascent bubbles in the Indian stock market. Initially, the multifractal form of the detrended fluctuation analysis was applied. Then the Reformulated Hurst exponent for the Bombay stock exchange (BSE) was determined using Kantelhardt’s calibration. The investigation found evidence of high-level herding and a bubble in 2012, with a high value of Hurst Exponent (0.7349). The other years of the research period (2011, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2020–2021) observed mild to significant herding with comparatively lower Hurst values. The results confirm that herding behavior occurs during a crisis and harsh situations emitting shocks. The study concludes that shock-based herding is prevalent in all six shocks: the economic meltdown, commodities and currency devaluation, geo-political problems, the Central Bank’s decision on liquidity management, and the Pandemic. Additionally, the years following the Financial Crisis and the years of the Pandemic are when herding and bubble are prominent.

Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Bikramaditya Ghosh (Associate Professor, Symbiosis International University, Bangalore, India) for motivating us in this research. We also thank Dr. Natchimuthu N (Assistant Professor, Commerce, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India) and Dr. Mahesh E. (Assistant Professor, Economics, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India) for their support throughout this study.

Nigeria has a serious food crisis, which can be attributed to poor management of tangible non-current assets by food manufacturing companies, which leads to low productivity, product wastages, and ineffective processing and distribution of products culminating in low return on assets. Therefore, this study examined the effects of changes in tangible non-current assets on return on assets of food manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The study employed an ex-post facto research approach with data obtained from top food manufacturing companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2020. The finding revealed that tangible non-current assets play a very important role in the return on assets of food manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Specifically, the study revealed that changes in investment in land and buildings, plants and machineries and motor vehicles have a statistically significant influence on return on assets (ROA) of quoted food manufacturing companies (FMCs). It was concluded that an increase in tangible non-current assets enhances the return of assets of food manufacturing companies. In line with the findings of this study, it was recommended that considerable attention should be paid by the management of FMCs to efficient utilization of tangible non-current assets because it is only when non-current assets are efficiently utilized that they would have significant contributions to or implications for the return on assets of the business.