IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v88y2023ics1057521923001990.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rumors in the sky: Corporate rumors and stock price synchronicity

Author

Listed:
  • Cai, Wenwu
  • Quan, Xiaofeng
  • Zhu, Zhenmei (Judy)

Abstract

Using hand-collected rumor clarification announcements from Chinese listed firms to identify corporate rumors, we find that rumored firms have lower stock price synchronicity (R2) than do firms without rumors. Channel analyses reveal that rumors reduce stock price synchronicity through elevating investor sentiment rather than stimulating informed trading. Additionally, the negative association between corporate rumors and stock price synchronicity is more evident among firms with more individual investors and higher information opacity. Moreover, corporate rumors are associated with higher analyst forecast errors and forecast dispersion. Overall, our evidence suggests that corporate rumors reduce stock price synchronicity by increasing investor irrationality.

Suggested Citation

  • Cai, Wenwu & Quan, Xiaofeng & Zhu, Zhenmei (Judy), 2023. "Rumors in the sky: Corporate rumors and stock price synchronicity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:88:y:2023:i:c:s1057521923001990
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521923001990
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102683?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefano Pace, 2013. "Does Religion Affect the Materialism of Consumers? An Empirical Investigation of Buddhist Ethics and the Resistance of the Self," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(1), pages 25-46, January.
    2. Harrison Hong & Jeremy C. Stein, 2003. "Differences of Opinion, Short-Sales Constraints, and Market Crashes," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 487-525.
    3. Jin, Li & Myers, Stewart C., 2006. "R2 around the world: New theory and new tests," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 257-292, February.
    4. Patrick J. Kelly, 2014. "Information Efficiency and Firm-Specific Return Variation," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(04), pages 1-44.
    5. Miguel A. Ferreira & Paul A. Laux, 2007. "Corporate Governance, Idiosyncratic Risk, and Information Flow," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 951-989, April.
    6. Kandel, Shmuel & Stambaugh, Robert F, 1996. "On the Predictability of Stock Returns: An Asset-Allocation Perspective," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(2), pages 385-424, June.
    7. Lubos Pastor & Pietro Veronesi, 2009. "Learning in Financial Markets," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 361-381, November.
    8. Hilary, Gilles & Hui, Kai Wai, 2009. "Does religion matter in corporate decision making in America?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 455-473, September.
    9. Cioroianu, Iulia & Corbet, Shaen & Larkin, Charles, 2021. "The differential impact of corporate blockchain-development as conditioned by sentiment and financial desperation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    10. Kent Daniel & David Hirshleifer & Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, 1998. "Investor Psychology and Security Market Under- and Overreactions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(6), pages 1839-1885, December.
    11. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Srinidhi, Bin & Ng, Anthony C., 2011. "Does board gender diversity improve the informativeness of stock prices?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 314-338, April.
    12. David Hirshleifer, 2001. "Investor Psychology and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1533-1597, August.
    13. Dasgupta, Sudipto & Gan, Jie & Gao, Ning, 2010. "Transparency, Price Informativeness, and Stock Return Synchronicity: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(5), pages 1189-1220, October.
    14. Lai, Sandy & Ng, Lilian & Zhang, Bohui, 2014. "Does PIN affect equity prices around the world?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 178-195.
    15. Ramzi Benkraiem & Sabri Boubaker & Asif Saeed, 2022. "How does corporate social responsibility engagement affect the information content of stock prices?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1266-1289, July.
    16. Rajgopal, Shiva & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2011. "Financial reporting quality and idiosyncratic return volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1-2), pages 1-20, February.
    17. Peng, Lin & Xiong, Wei, 2006. "Investor attention, overconfidence and category learning," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 563-602, June.
    18. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1998. "A model of investor sentiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 307-343, September.
    19. Wu, Kai & Lai, Seiwai, 2020. "Intangible intensity and stock price crash risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Rajgopal, Shiva & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2011. "Financial reporting quality and idiosyncratic return volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 1-20.
    21. Xingqiang Du, 2013. "Does Religion Matter to Owner-Manager Agency Costs? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 319-347, December.
    22. Peter M. Clarkson & Daniel Joyce & Irene Tutticci, 2006. "Market reaction to takeover rumour in Internet Discussion Sites," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 46(1), pages 31-52, March.
    23. X. Frank Zhang, 2006. "Information Uncertainty and Analyst Forecast Behavior," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(2), pages 565-590, June.
    24. Ng, Anthony C. & Rezaee, Zabihollah, 2020. "Business sustainability factors and stock price informativeness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    25. Yuan Gao & Derek Oler, 2012. "Rumors and pre-announcement trading: why sell target stocks before acquisition announcements?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 485-508, November.
    26. Chan, Kalok & Hameed, Allaudeen, 2006. "Stock price synchronicity and analyst coverage in emerging markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 115-147, April.
    27. Sila, Vathunyoo & Gonzalez, Angelica & Hagendorff, Jens, 2017. "Independent director reputation incentives and stock price informativeness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 219-235.
    28. Devos, Erik & Hao, Wei & Prevost, Andrew K. & Wongchoti, Udomsak, 2015. "Stock return synchronicity and the market response to analyst recommendation revisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 376-389.
    29. X. Frank Zhang, 2006. "Information Uncertainty and Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 105-137, February.
    30. Zhai, Huayun & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen & Liu, Qingzhuo & Zhao, Ying, 2021. "Key audit matters and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    31. Xing, Xuejing & Anderson, Randy, 2011. "Stock price synchronicity and public firm-specificinformation," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 259-276, May.
    32. Brown, Gregory & Kapadia, Nishad, 2007. "Firm-specific risk and equity market development," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 358-388, May.
    33. Jia, Weishi & Redigolo, Giulia & Shu, Susan & Zhao, Jingran, 2020. "Can social media distort price discovery? Evidence from merger rumors," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    34. Hibbert, Ann Marie & Kang, Qiang & Kumar, Alok & Mishra, Suchi, 2020. "Heterogeneous beliefs and return volatility around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 571-589.
    35. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2001. "The Internet and the Investor," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 41-54, Winter.
    36. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Qiu, Annie A., 2010. "Ownership concentration, foreign shareholding, audit quality, and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 425-442, March.
    37. Li, Yelin & Bu, Hui & Li, Jiahong & Wu, Junjie, 2020. "The role of text-extracted investor sentiment in Chinese stock price prediction with the enhancement of deep learning," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1541-1562.
    38. Zivney, Terry L. & Bertin, William J. & Torabzadeh, Khalil M., 1996. "Overreaction to takeover speculation," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 89-115.
    39. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2008. "All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 785-818, April.
    40. Scott D. Dyreng & William J. Mayew & Christopher D. Williams, 2012. "Religious Social Norms and Corporate Financial Reporting," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(7-8), pages 845-875, September.
    41. Xingqiang Du & Wei Jian & Quan Zeng & Yingjie Du, 2014. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility in Polluting Industries: Does Religion Matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 485-507, October.
    42. Kewei Hou & Lin Peng & Wei Xiong, 2013. "Is R-Squared a Measure of Market Inefficiency?," Working Papers 2013-8, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    43. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    44. Boubaker, Sabri & Mansali, Hatem & Rjiba, Hatem, 2014. "Large controlling shareholders and stock price synchronicity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 80-96.
    45. Miller, Edward M, 1977. "Risk, Uncertainty, and Divergence of Opinion," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1151-1168, September.
    46. Brockman, Paul & Yan, Xuemin (Sterling), 2009. "Block ownership and firm-specific information," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 308-316, February.
    47. Xu, Nianhang & Chan, Kam C. & Jiang, Xuanyu & Yi, Zhihong, 2013. "Do star analysts know more firm-specific information? Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 89-102.
    48. Kenneth R. Ahern & Denis Sosyura, 2015. "Rumor Has It: Sensationalism in Financial Media," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(7), pages 2050-2093.
    49. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    50. Goodell, John & Li, Mingsheng & Liu, Desheng, 2021. "Price informativeness and state-owned enterprises: Considering their heterogeneity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    51. Ben R. Marshall & Nuttawat Visaltanachoti & Genevieve Cooper, 2014. "Sell the rumour, buy the fact?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 54(1), pages 237-249, March.
    52. Baoyin Qiu & Junli Yu & Kuo Zhang, 2020. "Trust and Stock Price Synchronicity: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 97-109, November.
    53. An, Heng & Zhang, Ting, 2013. "Stock price synchronicity, crash risk, and institutional investors," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 1-15.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chue, Timothy K. & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Mian, G. Mujtaba, 2019. "Aggregate investor sentiment and stock return synchronicity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    2. Li, Mingsheng & Liu, Desheng & Peng, Hongfeng & Zhang, Luxiu, 2020. "Does low synchronicity mean more or less informative prices? Evidence from an emerging market," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    3. Xiang Zhang & Han Zhou, 2020. "Leverage structure and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Fenghua Wen & Yujie Yuan & Wei-Xing Zhou, 2019. "Cross-shareholding networks and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," Papers 1903.01655, arXiv.org.
    5. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Man & Hoang, Luong & Nguyen, Lily & Phan, Hoang Long, 2020. "Media coverage and stock price synchronicity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    6. Guo, Chunying & Yang, Baochen & Fan, Ying, 2022. "Does mandatory CSR disclosure improve stock price informativeness? Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Fu, Junhui & Chen, Xingwei & Liu, Yufang & Chen, Rongda, 2022. "Managerial ability and stock price synchronicity," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    8. Fenghua Wen & Yujie Yuan & Wei‐Xing Zhou, 2021. "Cross‐shareholding networks and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 914-948, January.
    9. Doan, Anh-Tuan & Lin, Kun-Li, 2022. "Bank ownership and stock price informativeness. Does politics matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Wei Hao & Andrew Prevost & Udomsak Wongchoti, 2018. "Are Low Equity R2 Firms More or Less Transparent? Evidence from the Corporate Bond Market," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 865-909, December.
    11. Kee-Hong Bae & Jin-Mo Kim & Yang Ni, 2013. "Is Firm-specific Return Variation a Measure of Information Efficiency?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 13(4), pages 407-445, December.
    12. Lin, Mei-Chen & Wu, Chu-Hua & Chiang, Ming-Ti, 2014. "Investor attention and information diffusion from analyst coverage," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 235-246.
    13. Cheema, Arbab K. & Eshraghi, Arman & Wang, Qingwei, 2023. "Macroeconomic news and price synchronicity," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 390-412.
    14. Joachim Gassen & Hollis A. Skaife & David Veenman, 2020. "Illiquidity and the Measurement of Stock Price Synchronicity," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 419-456, March.
    15. Rao, Lanlan & Zhou, Liyun, 2019. "The role of stock price synchronicity on the return-sentiment relation," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 119-131.
    16. Doan, Anh-Tuan & Phan, Thu & Lin, Kun-Li, 2020. "Governance quality, bank price synchronicity and political uncertainty," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 231-262.
    17. David Hirshleife, 2015. "Behavioral Finance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 133-159, December.
    18. Cheng, Feiyang & Wang, Chunfeng & Chiao, Chaoshin & Yao, Shouyu & Fang, Zhenming, 2021. "Retail attention, retail trades, and stock price crash risk," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    19. Barka, Zeineb & Benkraiem, Ramzi & Hamza, Taher & Lakhal, Faten & Vigne, Samuel, 2023. "Institutional investor horizon and stock price synchronicity: Do product market competition and analyst coverage matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    20. Zhu, PengCheng & Jog, Vijay & Otchere, Isaac, 2014. "Idiosyncratic volatility and mergers and acquisitions in emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 18-48.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate rumors; Stock price synchronicity; Investor irrationality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:88:y:2023:i:c:s1057521923001990. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620166 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.