Stylized Facts of the Statistical Properties of Risk and Return of the Dhaka Stock Exchange: 1991-2015

Abstract

While the role of financial market, particularly the stock market, in promoting economic growth through efficient allocation of capital is well recognised, the investors of the developing economies have little knowledge about the return and risk of the markets they operate in. To this end, we compile a security level historical data for the period 1991-2015 for Dhaka Stock Exchange and identify some important stylized facts about the return and risk. Descriptive statistics of disaggregated stock data suggest that while the daily rate of returns swing up and down over decades, the volatility tends to increase over time. Manufacturing stocks outperform other sectors both in return and volatility. Similarly, older stocks earn better return with lesser risks than the newer stocks. Several standard tests confirm that the distribution of daily returns is not normal; it does not follow random walk and the market is not efficient. Overall, there is a risk return trade-off and this trade-off varies significantly with sectors, age and quality of the stocks.