Voluntary Disclosure, Enterprise Risk Management and Stock Price Synchronicity: Evidence from Shar¯ı‘ah Compliant and Non-Shar¯ı‘ah Compliant Companies

Abstract

The study observes that low R 2 values from market model are primarily due to the reflection of firm-specific information in stock prices and not due to noise. The study explores that the extent to which stock prices become more informative depends upon the availability of firm-specific information in the market. The methodology of stock price synchronicity is applied by using a sample of 30 Shar¯ı‘ah and 30 non-Shar¯ı‘ah compliant companies which are taken from KMI 30 and PSX 100 indexes. The study explores the impact of Shar¯ı‘ah compliance on stock price synchronicity or informativeness based upon the rationale that Islam puts emphasis on disclosure and social accountability which should reduce the firm’s information asymmetry and improve the stock price informativeness. The study reports significant and positive relationship of Shar¯ı‘ah compliance and voluntary disclosure on stock price synchronicity which is not according to the hypothesis. The possible reason may be the size effect which may be moving the firms in line with the market. Moreover, the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) practices have significant and negative impact on stock price synchronicity. It confirms that ERM helps in improving the firm’s information environment and stock price informativeness.