Key Fundamental Factors and Long-run Price Changes in an Emerging Market—A Case Study of Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)

Share prices are the most important indicator readily available to the investors for their decision to invest or not in a particular share. Theories suggest that share price changes are associated with changes in fundamental variables which are relevant for share valuation like payout ratio, dividend yield, capital structure, earnings size of the firm and its growth, [Wilcox (1984); Rappoport (1986); Downs (1991)]. Linter (1956) linked dividend changes to earnings while Shapiro valuation model (1962) showed dividend streams discounted by the difference in discount rate and growth in dividend should be equal to share price. This predicts direct relation between pay out ratio and the price-earning multiple. Conversely it means that there is an inverse relation between pay out ratio and share price changes. Several eventbased studies established direct relation between share price changes and either earnings or dividend changes [Ball and Brown (1968); Baskin (1989)]. Sharpe (1964) and Hamada (1972) suggested direct relation between share price changes and capital structure. Beaver, Kettler and Sholes (1970) showed that firms appear to pay less of their earnings if they have higher earning volatility. This suggests payout ratio as relevant factor for share price changes. Investigations of share price changes appear to yield evidence that changes in fundamental variable(s) should jointly bring about changes in share prices both in developed and emerging markets. However, the actual fundamental factors found to be relevant may vary from market to market. For example, changes in asset growth of firms are significant in the case of Japanese shares while earnings appear to be universally a relevant factor [Ariff, et al. (1994)]. However, it is widely agreed that a set of fundamental variables as suggested by individual theories is no doubt relevant as possible factors affecting share price changes in the short and the long-run [Ariff and Khan (2000)].