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This paper aims to undertake a comprehensive comparative analysis of Sharīʿah-compliant equity investments (SCEIs) and their non-Sharīʿah counterparts, in India, conditioning for investment horizon and market volatility. Indirectly, it also investigates for time varying performance of SCEIs, and explicitly analyses the unsystematic risk and related adequacy of returns.

Testing for statistical significance of differences in risks and returns; analysing portfolio performance using conventional metrics, information ratio, and Jensen's Alpha; Estimating returns due to stock selection and market timing using Fama’s Net Selectivity and Treynor and Mazuy’s Models.

SCEIs in India do not significantly differ in their total risks and returns compared to their conventional counterparts. While their risk is lower in the monthly and quarterly investment horizons, their Jensen’s Alphas are positive only in the annual investment horizons. These findings hold, when market volatility is low. Market timing wipes out the superior returns that exist due to stock selection in SCEIs.

Being Sharīʿah-compliant is beneficial only in longer investment horizons. Asset selection, not co-movement with the market, is key to excess returns to compensate for risks due to inadequate diversification. However, only cautious market timing can conserve them.

Though investors are not better-off in choosing ethical investments, they are not worse-off either. Being Sharīʿah-compliant is rewarding during less volatile markets.

This paper extends international literature on SCEIs, with evidence on the impact of investment horizon and market volatility on their returns and risks. Further, this paper is also a comprehensive analysis of Indian SCEIs, broadening the empirical evidence on a significant, non-Islamic and emerging market.

This study aims to examine the influence of corporate governance variables on firm performance and also to find out whether the corporate governance mechanism is capable of mitigating the vertical agency crisis. Here the researcher uses corporate governance mechanisms such as board meeting frequency, board independence, percentage of non-executive directors, percentage of woman directors on board and the board size to measure the firm performance and, at the same time, tries to mitigate the agency crisis, which is measured through return on asset and asset turnover ratio.

The present study considers period from 2009 to 2020 with data corresponding to a panel of 271 non-financial firms listed in 500 NSE index, India. The study introduces a panel regression model to analyze the data collected from the sample firms.

The study detects a positive as well as a statistically significant relationship between board size and vertical agency cost. The study also observes a negative relationship between board independence and agency cost. Further, the study finds a positive relationship between corporate governance variables and firm performance, though it is non-significant.

As the study progresses, the study detects a negative relationship between non-executive directors and agency costs. This study tries to give policy prescription to the corporate policymaker regarding various measures to be taken by the firm for the improvement of firm performance and reduction of owner and manager conflict inside the company. The study fills the literature gap by revealing a significant relationship between corporate governance, vertical agency crisis and firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the behavior of the stock market returns in the different days of the week and different months of the year in accordance with the Islamic calendar. Further, the study estimates the risk-adjusted returns to test the performance of the indices during the Ramadan and non-Ramadan days. Finally, the study investigates the impact of Ramadan on the returns and the volatility of the stock market indices in India.

Initially, the study applies the Ordinary Least Square method to test the day-of-the-week and the month-of-the-year effect of the common and Shariah indices. Next, the study employs the risk-adjusted measurement to examine the underperformance and over-performance of the indices for both the periods. Finally, the study estimates the GARCH (1,1) and GJR-GARCH (1,1) models to observe the impact of Ramadan on the returns and the volatility of the Shariah indices in India.

The study finds that an average return of the indices during the Ramadan days are higher than non-Ramadan days. Further, the average returns of the Shariah indices are significantly higher on Wednesday than other days of the week. In addition, the highest and significant mean returns and mean risk-adjusted returns of the indices during the Ramadan days are observed. Finally, the study finds an evidence of the Ramadan effect on the returns and volatility of the indices in India.

The study observes evidence that the Ramadan effect influences the Shariah indices, but not the common indices in the stock market of the non-Muslim countries. It indicates that the Ramadan creates the positive mood and emotions in the investors buying and selling activities. The study suggests that investors can buy the shares before Ramadan period and sell them during the Ramadan days to get an abnormal return in the emerging markets.

The present study seeks to investigate the relative edge between the market microstructure of the two leading stock exchanges of the Indian capital market, that is BSE and NSE with a focus on analysing their trading mechanism, efficiency, liquidity and volatility.

We analyse the microstructure of BSE and NSE on the basis of: (1) trading mechanism – ownership structure, listing of securities, trading system and settlement and clearing process; (2) information efficiency using unit root test, serial correlation, runs test, variance ratio and the ARIMA model; (3) liquidity using trading statistics no. of listed Companies, market capitalisation, no. of trades etc. and (4) volatility using standard deviation and GARCH(1,1) model.

A comprehensive scrutiny on microstructure of BSE and NSE makes it evident that the two leading stock exchanges of India are mostly similar and leave no scope to choose between them. Both the exchanges are demutualised corporate entities with a fully automated trading system in an order-driven market, informationally inefficient as evidenced by the predictability of returns, have shown tremendously growing trading statistics and by and large a declining trend in volatility over the years.

Understanding the components of the microstructure black-box will provide the regulatory bodies with an intellectual framework to strengthen the market architecture. Both the exchanges will get aware of the dynamics of trading, can grow to be more competitive and attract more firms for listing and investors for trading of securities. Also, investors, portfolio managers and equity analysts will be able to make better investment strategies by understanding how the market works.

Research in the area of market microstructure has been severely neglected, especially in the context of the Indian market. India is the world's fastest growing economies and we have witnessed tremendous reforms in the capital market. The past two and a half decades have brought about several innovations via demutualisation, screen-based trading, emergence of clearing corporations, innovative financial products and intense use of IT in the Indian stock market. A spurt of reforms and the emerging environment make it crucial to deeply analyse the market structure and design of two premier stock exchanges of India – BSE and NSE.

This study aims to compare the fundamental indexation (FI) portfolio vis-à-vis the cap-weighted index (CWI). It also explored the return-generating attributes of the FI portfolios.

This study extracted relevant data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s Prowess database from March 1996 to March 2017 from a sample of National Stock Exchange (NSE) 500 companies. The FI portfolios were constructed with First_50 and Next_50 stocks using the latest and five years of trailing average aggregations. Further, the regression technique was used to identify the return-generating attributes of FI portfolios.

It was found that the FI portfolios based on First_50 and Next_50 stocks outperformed the CWI (i.e. NSE_First_50 and NSE_Next_50) in the Indian capital market, and between the two, the FI portfolios based on Next_50 stocks were superior to the FI portfolios based on First_50 stocks. The cross-sectional superiority of FI portfolios is obvious if they are sorted according to four fundamentals, namely, total income, sales, operating cash flows and profit before depreciation interest tax and amortisation. The return-generating process of FI portfolios is well-explained by market premium followed by value premium and investment premium.

This study may enable portfolio managers and investors to measure FI portfolios’ superiority in the Indian capital market and identify the return-generating attributes of FI portfolios so that the loadings can be switched amongst different priced factors for higher yield. Further, this study extends the FI literature, providing evidence from one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

To the best of the knowledge, this is amongst the first few studies to explore the performance of FI portfolios vis-à-vis CWIs in India, and to use Fama and French (2015) asset pricing models to understand the return-generating attributes of FI portfolios. It is also novel in the sense that it considers the FI portfolios for a longer duration, predating 1997 and coinciding with the inception of CWIs, namely, NSE_First_50 (inception: 1995) and NSE_Next_50 (inception: 1996), reducing the apprehensions of data-snooping biases.

This paper aims to examine the impact of initial public offerings (IPO)-year opportunistic earnings management on long-term market and earnings performance.

A sample of 150 book-built IPOs over 2001-2006 are analysed based on industry adjusted return on sales and industry adjusted return on assets for six post-IPO years. The quality of earnings is measured in two ways using discretionary accruals and Beneish manipulation score. Modified Jones model is used to estimate the expected accruals and to compute the discretionary accruals for each IPO firm year. Regression model is used to examine the impact of IPO-year quality of earnings on future earnings performance.

The paper finds that earnings and market performance of IPO companies are abnormally higher in the IPO-year, as compared to the post-IPO years. Similarly, the quality of earnings during the IPO-year is lower than those in the post-IPO years. The results also show that the opportunistic earnings management in IPO-year has significant negative impact on the long-term adjusted earnings and market performance.

The present study is confined to the period from 2001 to 2006 for the purpose of post-IPO analysis for a period of six post-IPO years. Thus, the conclusions of this study are to be viewed with this limitation.

This paper is the first study based on the Indian context to examine the relationship between the quality of earnings of the IPO firm and long-term earnings and market performance.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric technique of computing efficiencies of decision-making units using similar set of inputs to give similar set of outputs. The objective is to pick out inefficient units from a data set of similar units and thus analyse their performance amongst their peer group. Stock markets can be considered to be an economy’s barometer. Thus, evaluation of efficiency effectiveness of the companies operating at stock exchange is a valuable exercise. Further, if the inefficient units can be given a benchmark for improvement, they can increase their market value. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiencies of the Oil, Gas and Power (OGP) sector of India for the companies that form a part of the CNX Energy Index and CNX 500 Index of the National Stock Exchange of India.

A group of 24 units has been included in the study. DEA was applied for ranking the units as per their efficiency levels by computing their technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies (SE). It was observed that only nine units are efficient and the remaining 15 were inefficient. It was observed that ONGC is the most efficient unit and CESC Ltd is the least efficient unit in this group. Also in this group there are ten units that show inefficiency due to their scales of operations. Further, benchmarking for the inefficient units has also been done in terms of inputs/outputs and the targets are suggested. It was observed that some of the Public Sector Companies like NTPC are using more inputs compared to the other units from the same group for achieving the same efficiency.

The present study attempted a limited objective of establishing the technical, pure technical and scale inefficiencies of the companies operating in OGP sector in India and listed on National Stock Exchange with the help of the non-parametric technique of DEA and suggesting how they can strive to improve their performance. It is observed that 37.5 per cent are technically efficient as well as scale efficient, whereas 62.5 per cent are pure technically efficient. There are 42 per cent companies representing approximately half of the output and more than half of the input that have scale inefficiencies characterized by their PTE less than SE. Out of the efficient companies, ONGC appears to be the best whereas Essar Oil has a comparatively lower rank. Out of the inefficient companies, the worst performer is CESC Ltd. However, inspite of being the worst performer, this unit does not have the worst benchmarking targets. The units like Sterlite technologies and KSK energy ventures need to improve their profit by almost 1,000 per cent. These kind of targets are very difficult to attain. Hence these units need to improve their scale of operation. The managers of these units must take up this issue seriously and take measures to improve their productivity. The study also attempted benchmarking where various inefficient units have been suggested targets they need to scale to improve their efficiency. If addressed, they can have micro as well as macro benefits.

In the present paper, the analysis is restricted only to the OGP sector of Indian economy. The study can be further extended to various other sectors of Indian economy such as agriculture, telecommunications etc. This would help in the holistic analysis of the economy. The flag bearer efficient units would set up a benchmark for the improvement to the inefficient units that would help improve the developing economy of India.

An increase in productivity is the most crucial management objective for any industry. Assessing the performance of companies listed and traded in stock market is imperative for investors and financial managers. Researchers have widely studied the performance evaluation of listed companies. Establishing efficiency of stock markets as a whole as well as of the constituent companies has been subject of wide research, but to the understanding no study has been done on evaluating the efficiencies of the OGP sector of India. In the present study the authors have concentrated on companies, out of the universe of energy companies operating in India, which form part of the CNX Energy Index and CNX 500 Index of the National Stock Exchange of India. The reason is that they represent the Indian energy market pretty well.

The paper aims to study the impact of the introduction of Nifty index futures on the volatility of the Indian spot markets by use of econometric models.

The study considered six measures of volatility, the dynamic linear regression model, and the GARCH models to investigate volatility in National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty prices both before and after the onset of futures trading.

The GARCH analysis confirmed no structural change after the introduction of futures trading on Nifty, and found that whilst the pre‐futures sample was integrated, the post‐futures sample was stationary. Spot returns volatility is found to be less important in explaining spot returns after the advent of futures trading in NSE Nifty.

The results imply that futures markets serve their prescribed role of improving pricing efficiency and improve the quality of information flowing to spot markets. This will enable investors to prudently structure their strategies investing in both spot and futures markets.

This study is an original piece of work towards exploring the impact of the introduction of futures trading on cash market volatility in an emerging economy like India.

The study aims to identify the impact of board characteristics (BC) on a firm's environmental performance, and provides future research directions in the area of BC impact on environmental disclosures (ED) in case of India's environmentally sensitive and non-sensitive industries (SI and NSI).

The authors collect firm-level data from Prowess and Bloomberg, which cover 1,158 firm-year observations from National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) 500 listed companies from 2015 to 2020, and use a dynamic panel regression analysis to get deeper insights on the relationship of ED and BC.

The study found that lagged environment disclosure score is positively and significantly associated with current environmental disclosure scores. The presence of sustainability committee, board size and frequency of meetings has a positive and significant association with ED for sensitive as well as non-sensitive industry groups. Factors such as board Independence, board gender diversity and CEO duality have no significant impact on ED of both sensitive and non-sensitive industry groups.

Based on agency theory and stakeholder theory authors study for the first time in the context of India the effect of BC on ED using a large sample and covering an extensive period of six years. This study contributes by offering deep insights about the impact in case of “environmentally sensitive, non-sensitive and also all industries case”. The findings of this study are valuable for corporate managers and regulators who are interested in improving ED practices through a better-governed corporate mechanism.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the impact of board size on the accounting returns and asset quality of Indian banks.

This paper uses ordinary least squares regression, robust regression and panel data methods for estimation, based on data collected for a sample of 29 Indian banks that are listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and form part of the NSE-500 index over a period of eight financial years 2009-2016. The data pertaining to the board size of the sample banks is collected from the annual reports of banks, whereas the data relating to return on assets (ROA) and ratio of the gross non-performing assets to total assets and control variables (bank age and bank size) is extracted from ACE Equity database.

This paper concludes that the size of the governing board has a positive impact on the accounting returns (measured through ROA) of the Indian banks. Further, board size is observed to be insignificant in determining the asset quality of Indian banks.

This paper contributes to the literature and practitioners in a number of ways. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the impact of board size on the accounting returns and asset quality of Indian banks. The findings of the study contribute new theoretical insights to the body of knowledge on the influence of the size of the board, which may be useful for future researchers. Second, banks may enhance their financial performance by taking cognizance of the findings of this study. Finally, equity investors may make use of the findings of this article in deciding on whether to invest in a bank’s stock/lend to the bank based on board size of the bank.