Price-sensitive announcements and stock return anomalies: Evidence from Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of price-sensitive announcements on stock return anomalies and the interaction effect of corporate announcements of firms with abnormal returns (AR). The study focused on 279 announcements for a period of two years from Jan-2016 till Dec-2017. The announcements were related to plant expansion, change in capital structure, change in ownership, and financial results. We adopted the event study methodology to calculate the Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR) for the event window of 30 days (−15, +15). The study also used hierarchical moderated regression analysis to examine the moderating effect of corporate announcements on abnormal returns. The findings revealed that insiders received higher abnormal returns when they buy stocks before corporate announcements. The results also indicated that these returns are specifically related to purchases made before announcing plant expansion, financial results, and change in the capital structure. The study also exposed that insiders having prior information on corporate announcements can increase predictability and drive the return irrespective of the firms’ operating business. The results provide more insight into the effectiveness of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in curbing insider trading in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The study recommends to the individual investors to diversify their investment to safeguard the returns.