An event study of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE): Implications for post-dollarisation market efficiency

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of earnings (full-year, half-year and dividend) announcements and cautionary statements on returns of ZSE listed companies post-dollarisation of the economy in 2009. A standard CMRM based event study methodology (EVM) is applied to weekly returns from January 2010 to December 2012. Findings suggest that earnings announcements and cautionary statements have no impact on returns of companies traded on the ZSE characterised by a very weak correlation of between 'good/bad news' and the direction of significant CARs. We conclude that alleged insider trading, high costs of trading and market undervaluation make it difficult for EVM to detect abnormal returns, thereby painting picture of compliance with the weak to semi-strong forms of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH).