Stock Category Research Articles

A methodology for estimating office building energy use baselines by means of land use legislation and reference buildings

Understanding the energy demand of cities is a challenge especially in countries such as Brazil where the lack of building energy consumption benchmarks makes it hard to decide upon interventions in the building stock, as neither the existing nor the attainable energy performance are known. Aiming to overcome these difficulties this study develops a framework to estimate the Energy Use Intensity (EUI) baseline of an existing building stock category based on the investigation of land use regulations, a land tax database and field surveys. These offer a starting point to estimate current energy consumption and promising interventions without having to study specific buildings in depth. A case study of the high-rise commercial building stock took place in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Three representative typologies were identified. For each of these, archetype energy models were created in order to assess EUI. The analysis of the EUI baselines highlights differences between archetypes, explaining the impact of technical choices on the overall electricity consumption and indicating a growing tendency of energy consumption for forthcoming buildings. The archetype analysis also provides knowledge to identify the most promising energy savings potential and thus to support further energy policies in the city.

A Comparative Study of the Returns of Quoted Sin and Non Sin Stocks at the Nairobi Securities Exchange

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to compare returns of quoted sin and non-sin stocks at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The major objective of the study was to establish whether stock returns of sin stocks outperform non sin stocks.Methodology: The study used explanatory research design with the population consisting of all firms listed in the NSE. The sample of the study consisted of the top 20 NSE firms. The study grouped 18 firms into the non-sin stock category and another 2 firms (BAT ad EABL) into the sin stock category. Secondary data sources were used in gathering data for analysis which was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20) to generate the descriptive statistics and also to generate inferential results.Results: The study found out that sin stocks have higher capital gains, high expected return and dividends than in non-sin stocksUnique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended that Sin stocks have higher expected returns than comparable stocks; however, neglected they are by norm constrained investors. Therefore, investors should split their investment in sin stock and non-sin stocks.

Stock Price Analysis Under Extreme Value Theory

The objective of this paper is to provide a practical tool for stock price evaluation and forecasting under Extreme Value Theory (EVT). Three existing models are reviewed; these models include: Mordern Portfolio Theory, Black-Scholes, and Jarrow-Rudd models. It was found that these models may not be effective tools where option contract is not part of the investment regime. The data used in this research consist of the daily close price from a period of 30 days from 100 companies in the SET100 index. From the sample distribution F(X), extreme values were identified. A tail index E was calculated to verify the distribution for each security was identified. Using EVT, the threshold value was estimated and used as a tool for risk assessment for each stock. It was found that Thailand’s SET100 consists of two groups of stocks according to price distribution. The majority of the stocks are Weibull distributed and the remaining stocks are Frechet distributed. Using Fisher-Tippett-Gnedenko’s Generalized Extreme Value to calculate price volatility, the Weibull group shows the mean value of H = 0.57 , and the Frechet group shows H = 0.05 . The findings may be used as a tool for risk assessment in stock investment. This finding rejects the general assertion that most financial data are fat-tailed distribution. The finding of this paper implies that investors face two categories of stocks: low and high price volatility. The idea of sector diversity becomes secondary. Empirical evidence shows that stocks from different sectors may have the same distribution and stocks of the same sector may have different distributions. Therefore, price volatility index is a better indicator for risk management.

Optimal Control for Advertised Production Planning in a Three-Level Stock System with Deteriorating Items: Case of a Continuous-Review Policy

We consider in this paper a reverse-logistics problem chain with three stock categories where the production system is boosted by advertisement campaigns. Newly manufactured items are stored in the first stock category. The second stock category is reserved for remanufactured items, while the third contains items that are returned from the market. We assume that remanufactured items are not necessarily as-good-as-new. We also assume that new and remanufactured items are subject to deterioration and to dynamic demands, that customer return rate is also dynamic, and that the firm adopts a continuous-review policy. We use an optimal control approach to obtain optimal manufacturing rate, remanufacturing, rate, disposal rate and inventory levels in all three stock categories. Numerical examples and sensitivity analyses illustrate the results obtained.

Assessing carbon footprint in the life cycle of accommodation services: the case of an international tourist hotel

The accommodation sector is the most demanding energy consumer among all building stock categories. This study quantifies an international tourist hotel in Taiwan to holistically estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of hotel accommodation services through a complete life cycle inventory. The study also investigates the difference between the carbon emissions of the baseline and reduction years to understand the effects of carbon emission reduction on the hotel industry. Results show that energy consumption is the main source of carbon footprint. However, the carbon emissions of other activities, such as the production and transportation of hotel amenities and laundry services, are 15.90% for the baseline year and 16.03% for the reduction year. These values are larger than the 5% cutoff rule according to PAS 2050. Thus, these factors should also be considered in assessing the carbon emissions of accommodation services. Hotel occupancy rate significantly affects carbon emissions during a one-night stay in a standard room as the functional unit. The selection of the functional unit should be considered in the hotel strategy. Although this case study involves an international tourist hotel in Taiwan, the findings and recommendations for improvements can be applied elsewhere.

Herding where retail investors dominate trading: The case of Saudi Arabia

Abstract We investigate herding in the Saudi stock market, where more than 95% of the total trading is initiated by the individual investors. Based on readily available stock data, we find evidence of pervasive herding among the market participants. Although herding is prevalent irrespective of market conditions, it tends to get stronger in periods when the market rises and the trading activity intensifies. Traders are found to be indifferent to important stock categories in their herd behavior. Further analysis suggests that the correlated behavior of Saudi traders is unlikely to be induced by the common movements in fundamentals. Considering the unique composition of the market clientele, we interpret these findings as constituting market level evidence supporting a commonly held belief in the literature that the individual investors are more likely to be noise traders.

Progress and problems in U.S. marine fisheries rebuilding plans

The United States is somewhat unique among major fishing nations in mandating the rebuilding of overfished stocks within a specified period of time, a requirement first enacted in 1996. This study is based primarily on a review of trends in the 2000–2010 period in fishing mortality and biomass levels of stocks in rebuilding programs, supplemented by recent U.S. and international scientific literature. The major objectives of this study are, first, to assess progress achieved to date in these rebuilding plans, and, second, to identify the most significant obstacles to successful rebuilding. Sufficient data exists to monitor trends in fishing mortality and biomass levels number for just 35 stocks, out of a total 59 stocks that are currently rebuilding or have recently completed the rebuilding process. Most stocks in rebuilding plans are finfish, and the majority of are managed in relatively few fishery management plans governing fisheries in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and northwest Pacific portions of the U.S. 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Therefore, the findings of this report are tentative and do not necessarily reflect broader trends in U.S. federally managed fisheries. This report shows substantial progress in about two-thirds of the 35 rebuilding stocks included in this report. Progress is defined in two ways: either the rebuilding plan has reduced fishing mortality to an acceptably low level, or it has brought about stock recovery to a mandated target. Most significantly, the assessment of rebuilding plan case studies indicates that reductions in fishing mortality, especially when implemented early in the programs and maintained as long as necessary, lead to significant increases in stock abundance in roughly four of five stocks. At the same time, the case studies also show that, in about one-third of the rebuilding plans, recovery measures have not yet produced the desired outcomes. The two most common problems are failure to adequately control fishing mortality and low resilience (high susceptibility to fishing pressure) of certain categories of overfished stocks.

When Does Investor Sentiment Predict Stock Returns?

We examine the predictive effect of sentiment on the cross-section of stock returns across different economic states. The degree of mispricing and the subsequent price correction can be different between economic expansion and recession because of the limits of arbitrage and short sale constraints. The predictive ability of sentiment is asymmetric between different states of the economy. We implement a multivariate Markov-switching model to characterize the economic states. Conditional on the identified economic states, we use the lagged sentiment proxy to forecast the portfolio returns related to small stocks, non-earning stocks, growth stocks, and non-dividend-paying stocks. We find that only in the expansion state does sentiment performs both in-sample and out-of-sample predictive power on these categories of stocks. When an expansion state has high sentiment, these categories of stocks earn relatively low subsequent returns. The predictive ability of sentiment can not be attributed to time-variation in the market beta driven by investor sentiment.

Application of particle swarm optimization to association rule mining

In the area of association rule mining, most previous research had focused on improving computational efficiency. However, determination of the threshold values of support and confidence, which seriously affect the quality of association rule mining, is still under investigation. Thus, this study intends to propose a novel algorithm for association rule mining in order to improve computational efficiency as well as to automatically determine suitable threshold values. The particle swarm optimization algorithm first searches for the optimum fitness value of each particle and then finds corresponding support and confidence as minimal threshold values after the data are transformed into binary values. The proposed method is verified by applying the FoodMart2000 database of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and compared with a genetic algorithm. The results indicate that the particle swarm optimization algorithm really can suggest suitable threshold values and obtain quality rules. In addition, a real-world stock market database is employed to mine association rules to measure investment behavior and stock category purchasing. The computational results are also very promising.

Investor Clienteles and Habitat-Based Return Comovements

This study investigates whether retail and institutional investors concentrate their trading among certain stock categories (i.e., habitats) and whether their trading activities generate return comovements among stocks within those habitats. Our results indicate that both retail and institutional investors are more likely to trade stocks with similar characteristics. Further, investors' trades are correlated with retail trades exhibiting stronger correlations. Using different measures of comovements, including geography- and price-based comovements, we demonstrate that correlated retail trading generates stronger comovement patterns while informed institutional trading weakens them. Comovements are stronger among stocks that have lottery features, are located in regions where people enjoy gambling, or are held by retail investors with strong gambling propensity. Across time, trading correlations and comovements are amplified during periods of greater market-level uncertainty and stronger consumer sentiment. Overall, these results are consistent with the habitat-based view of return comovements proposed in Barberis, Shleifer, and Wurgler (2005).

Priorities, Resource Stocks, and Performance in Family and Nonfamily Firms

This article discusses how the performance of family firms and nonfamily firms might differ as a result of the different priorities flowing from family influence, even when the two types of firms possess comparable levels of resource stocks. Using hierarchical regression to analyze data from a national study of the Small Business Development Center program, we find that family influence has both a positive and a negative moderating effect on the relationships between different categories of resource stocks and performance. Specifically, family firms benefit more from resource stocks based on external relationships while nonfamily firms benefit more from resource stocks based on functional skills.

Pathogen‐tested material of grapevine varieties and rootstocks

Pathogen‐tested material of grapevine varieties and rootstocks

Foreign versus local investors: Who knows more? Who makes more?

This paper examines the nature of information asymmetry between foreign and local investors on the Helsinki stock exchange (HEX) for the period 1999–2004. We take into account the differences in informational characteristics by partitioning stocks into single-listed, cross-listed and internationally well-known stock categories, after which we compare foreign and local investors’ performance and trading advantages. Local investors have trading advantages in the short term in all stock categories. However, such local advantages diminish for Nokia, the only internationally well-known stock on HEX.

Transaction behaviour analysis of profit-earning investors in securities corporations

Analysing investor behaviour by information systems to increase the opportunity of earning profit for investors will enhance customer satisfaction of securities companies and will also be helpful for the management and development of such firms. Moreover, securities investment is also important for financial departments of other enterprises. The objective of this study is to adopt Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) analysis and data mining to analyse the transaction behaviour and rules of profit-earning investors. The results classified several transaction behaviour rules of profit-earning investors. In addition, trading method and stock category were found to be the key factors of determining profit-earning.

Calculation of the“Net Additions to Stock” Indicator for the Czech Republic Using a Direct Method

Abstract: Net additions to stock (NAS) are an indicator based on economy‐wide material flow accounting and analysis. NAS, a measure of the physical growth rate of an economy, can be used for estimates of future waste flows. It is calculated using two methods: The indirect method of calculation is a simple difference between all input and output flows, whereas the direct method involves measuring the amounts of materials added to particular categories of physical stock and the amounts of waste flows from these stocks.The study described in this article had one leading objective: to make available direct NAS data for the Czech Republic, which could later be used for predicting future waste flows. Two additional objectives emerged from the first: (1) to develop a method for direct NAS calculation from data availability in the Czech Republic; (2) to calculate NAS directly, compare the results with those achieved in indirect NAS calculation, and discuss the identified differences.The NAS for the Czech Republic calculated by the direct method is equal to approximately 65 million tonnes on average in 2000–2002 and is approximately 27% lower than the NAS acquired by the indirect method of calculation. The actual values of directly calculated NAS and its uncertainties suggest that the indirect NAS is more likely to be an overestimation than an underestimation. Durables account for about 2% of the total direct NAS, whereas the rest is attributed to infrastructure and buildings. The direct NAS is dominated by nonmetal construction commodities such as building stone and bricks, which equal approximately 89% of the total direct NAS.Calculation of NAS by the direct method has been proved to be feasible in the Czech Republic. Moreover, uncertainties related to direct NAS are lower than those related to indirectly acquired NAS.

Mining stock category association and cluster on Taiwan stock market

One of the most important problems in modern finance is finding efficient ways to summarize and visualize the stock market data to give individuals or institutions useful information about the market behavior for investment decisions. The enormous amount of valuable data generated by the stock market has attracted researchers to explore this problem domain using different methodologies. This paper investigates stock market investment issues on Taiwan stock market using a two-stage data mining approach. The first stage Apriori algorithm is a methodology of association rules, which is implemented to mine knowledge and illustrate knowledge patterns and rules in order to propose stock category association and possible stock category investment collections. Then the K-means algorithm is a methodology of cluster analysis implemented to explore the stock cluster in order to mine stock category clusters for investment information. By doing so, this paper proposes several possible Taiwan stock market portfolio alternatives under different circumstances.

O debate dos economistas sobre a sustentabilidade: uma avaliação sob a ótica da análise do processo produtivo de Georgescu-Roegen

O artigo avalia o debate que a economia do meio ambiente vem travando em torno do conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável, tendo por base contribuições de Nicholas Georgecu-Roegen. Este autor se notabilizou por ter trazido para a análise econômica o conceito de entropia, hoje peça fundamental da estrutura conceitual da economia ecológica. Entretanto, não é este o aspecto da obra de Georgecu-Roegen aqui focalizado. Ressaltam-se, ao invés, contribuições para a discussão derivadas de sua análise do processo produtivo. Procura-se mostrar, de forma especial, que a incorporação, pela economia do meio ambiente, da distinção, sugerida pelo autor, entre a categoria de capital natural de estoque e a de fundo de serviços ambientais básicos, forçaria as visões sobre a sustentabilidade a se confrontarem com aspectos fundamentais da inter-relação entre o sistema econômico e o meio ambiente, que hoje tendem a estar ocultos nas hipóteses simplificadoras da análise convencional da sustentabilidade.

Company Characteristics and Common Stock Returns: The Indian Experience

The paper examines the relationship between selected company characteristics and common stock returns. The empirical results suggest that there is a strong size effect in the Indian stock market using both market-based as well as non-market based measures of company size. We also detect a weak value effect on stock returns, especially when E/P ratio is employed as a relative distress proxy. The study further finds that the present stock classification system in India fails to differentiate in returns on different categories of stocks. We recommend an alternative stock classification system based on company size and relative distress. The proposed classification procedure will provide better insights to investors about the risk-return characteristics of common stocks.

Adapting the Analytical Hierarchy Process to Identify Inventory Risk

The telecommunications industry is characterized by short product life cycles, driven by rapid market development and sometimes by new technologies emerging from internal and external research and design activities. These innovations cause product changes ranging from cosmetic, such as re‐packaging an existing product, to fundamental, such as introducing a completely new concept. The challenge for telecommunications manufacturers is to have the correct inventory in place for product launch and subsequent consumer demand. However, there are some categories of components that can cause serious inventory management problems and risk. We use the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a specific telecommunications case study, and propose new strategies to manage high risk categories of stock. We identify ways of containing those risks through product design strategies, adapting MRP systems, better supplier control and a closer liaison between marketing and manufacturing activities to better anticipate change.

Anticoccidial drugs and their effects upon the development of immunity to Eimeria infections in poultry

The long-held view that anticoccidial drugs, to a greater or lesser extent, interfere with the development of immunity to Eimeria species may no longer be correct because few drugs, if any, are capable of preventing some degree of parasite multiplication. Acquisition of immunity is, therefore, a real possibility, providing sufficient parasites are present in the environment. Immunity is an important consideration during the rearing of replacement layers, broiler breeders, turkeys, and gamebirds, but little research has been carried out on the effects of drugs on immunity development in these categories of stock. In recent years, there has been a change in the perception of the significance of immunity in broilers, and some broiler producers have taken this into consideration when designing drug programs for use in the field. Studies in floor pens and the field indicate that broilers given various drug programs can develop immunity when exposed to natural infections but that this process takes time: solid immunity not developing until birds are 6 to 7 weeks of age. This suggests that drugs should not be withdrawn from the feed prematurely since birds may not have had time to develop adequate immunity.