The Impact on Share Prices of Earnings Surprises

Abstract

Information uncertainty is a critical characteristic of financial market behavior. The ability to absorb and distribute information is central to financial market efficiency. Uncertain corporate earnings information causes stock prices volatility which in turn impacts stock price equilibrium level. An event study is a statistical method to assess the impact of an event on the value of a firm. The study can give suggestions of whether the market is efficiency or inefficient. This event study emphases on the earnings announcements and investigates financial market efficiency, post earnings announcement drift and the presence of abnormal returns during the assessed period. This report seeks to add to the existing literature of event studies. Corporate earnings announcements are denoted through various accounting disclosures. This takes from through the income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet and notes to the financial reports. The earnings announcement of corporate organizations to investors and shareholders are key pointers of forecasted future performances. A surprising earnings announcement has a particularly important influence on stock price which is amongst the numerous variables used to identify the value of the firm. An event study can reveal a specific picture in time to establish the behavioral and various impacts the earnings announcement has on the stock prices. This study is an event study on the 30 Banks of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) for the five quarterly earnings per share (EPS). It seeks out to investigate the market efficiency of the Banking industry and the speed at which financial market participants react to information released to companies. The study also investigates how market participants react to earnings announcement news represented through the Earnings per Share (EPS). The test is conducted for five quarterly earnings to analyze the abnormal returns. The quarterly data is collected from the Dhaka Stock Exchange, where the EPS data collected from 1st May 2016 to 31st December 2018, which are five quarterly period. For price data, collected from 1st January 2016 to 31st December 2018. From the results that in Bangladesh share market is not inefficient. That is occurred because of the political situation, leaked information and irrational behavior of the investors.