Share price reaction to Financial Mail’s “Top Companies” announcements

Abstract

Responsible Investment considers environmental, social and corporate governance criteria. These criteria, as an investment strategy, aim to have a positive impact on society as well as maximize financial returns. The concept of Responsible Investment is becoming more prominent and important to investors, both internationally and locally, with evidence from the negative reaction of share prices to recent events such as the BP oil spill. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, in collaboration with FTSE4Good, has developed Responsible Investment criteria. The aim of the criteria is to ensure global alignment, with regards to environmental criteria, and also ensure local relevance, with criteria that deals with issues such as black economic empowerment, skills development and HIV/Aids. This research examines the share price behaviour of companies that are recommended by analysts as ‘Top Companies’ on the basis of their compliance to set Responsible Investment criteria, with specific reference to the annual ‘Top 20 Companies’ as recommended by the Financial Mail magazine. Using event study methodology, the short- and long-term behaviour is studied for the 140 companies mentioned in the list from 2003 up until 2009. Positive, significant abnormal returns of around 2% are observed in the first 10 days following the announcement for the companies mentioned in the list for the first time. No positive abnormal returns are however observed for longer-term holding periods of up to 200 days following the announcement. The result suggests that the Financial Mail analysts’ annual recommendation is of value only to low transaction cost, short-term traders. Longer-term investors, who buy the recommended shares, generally receive returns similar to the market rate of return. Copyright