The Impact of Investor Sentiment on Stock Market Liquidity: The Mediating Role of Investor Herding Behavior “An Empirical Study on the Egyptian Stock Exchange”

Abstract

Behavioral finance is a recent approach in financial markets that have appeared because of the complexities long faced by the traditional or neoclassical finance theory. This paper investigates the influence of investor sentiment and herding behaviour on stock market liquidity using an empirical study on the Egyptian Stock Market. We examine the direct impact of Egyptian investor sentiment on the Egyptian Stock Market liquidity. As well as the indirect impact of the Egyptian investor sentiment on the Egyptian Stock Market liquidity through the Egyptian investor herding behaviour. Therefore, the major contribution is filling the gap of indirect sentiment-liquidity impact conflict. We use the monthly data of the EGX30 index from January 2004 up to December 2018 for building up investor sentiment index, investor herding behaviour, and stock market liquidity measures. Moreover, we are using two additional types of data (closed-end mutual fund discounts and the equity open-end mutual fund flows) that represent major measures which are used to build up investor sentiment index ranging through the same time-series of the previously mentioned period of this paper. Additionally, we use four control variables for stock market liquidity, namely market volatility, excess market return, term spread, and lag of the dependent variable, considering that the fourth variable is also used for investor herding behaviour. Our result shows that the investor sentiment index has both a direct and indirect impact on stock market liquidity. In addition, regarding event study analysis’ results, there are different signs of the direct and indirect impacts and different correlations between the research variables throughout the four different events that differ completely from the usual signs and correlations of the theoretical background.