Contributing Factors of Capital Structure: A Case of Non-Financial Companies Listed at KSE 100

The current study has taken the firms listed on KSE (Karachi Stock Exchange) now called Pakistan stock exchange. The data for the said purpose is collected for five years of time period from 2005 to 2010. The results obtained demonstrate that all the selected variables under study shows a highly significant impact on the determinants of capital structure except the tangibility of the asset. The insignificant relationship of tangibility with the capital structure supports the financing hierarchy theory. While the Growth, Size and profitability shows a significant and negative relationship with leverage. The negative relationship of growth shows that higher the growth of the firms lower will be the leverage maintained by the firm. Similarly, firms with smaller size show that such firms prefer high leverage as compared to firms of larger size. The results reveal that higher the profitability of the firm lower will be the leverage ratio. While the positive relationship of the volatility of the earnings states that firms with higher risks has high leverage ratio. Overall a detailed description and impact of the different variables on leverage is provided in the current study.