Cointegration among Equity Markets : A Study of Select South Asian Markets

Abstract

 For the longest time the spotlight of study of co-movement between the markets was confined to the western markets and very few studies focused on Asian equity markets inter-linkages. The focus of research literature started shifting to Asia in the late 1990’s mainly on account of the South-East Asian crises in 1997-98.In Asia, apart from Japan and China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea India and Thailand, have attracted the interest of international investors. In this paper, the linkages between the movements of the equity markets of these six nations are studied by applying Johansen’s Cointegration test and Vector Error Correction Method on the stock market data for a period spanning 2009 to 2013. The results obtained did not support a significant long run relationship among the chosen markets. In short run Singapore markets influenced Indian Markets negatively, Hong Kong Market was found to be influenced by Indian and Singapore market. Singapore market was found to be influenced by Indian market and its own lagged prices. South Korean markets were influenced in short term by Indian and Singapore markets. Thailand and Taiwanese markets were not influenced by any of these markets in short term.Â