The impact of trading volume on stock price volatility in the Arab economy

Abstract

This study intends to examine the price–volume movements in the Arab stock markets, in order to determine the impact of changes in trade volume on the volatility of stock prices as expressed by the unified AMF stock price index. The research covers a sample of eight out of the 15 Arab stock markets included in the Arab Monetary Fund database, using monthly data from 1994 to 2006. The study found that there is an increase in both trading volume and stock price volatility, which may be considered a recent phenomenon in the majority of the Arab stock markets. The study also found that the volume–stock price movements are significantly integrated for all selected markets, while the highest (to lowest) correlation coefficient between volume and stock price movement was found in the Saudi stock market, Amman stock market, Muscat stock market, and Kuwait stock market (in that order). Finally, the correlation between volume and price movement is higher in the stock markets of the oil Arab states compared to the nonoil Arab states.