Commodity price volatility and economic growth in Africa: the mitigating role of trade policy

The purpose of the paper is to select the right market proxy for calculating the expected return, since critically evaluating proxies or selecting the correct proxy market portfolio is essential for portfolio management because the change in the market portfolio proxy affects returns. In this study, monthly data of equity indices are evaluated to find out the better market proxy. The indices taken are BSE 30 (Sensex), Nifty 50, BSE 100, BSE 200, and BSE 500. The macroeconomic variables used in the study are industrial production index (IIP), consumer price index (CPI), money supply (M1), and exchange rate in India. To avoid the influence of COVID-19, the research period was from January 2013 to December 2019 to critically evaluate these proxies in order to find the most appropriate market proxy. This paper reveals a noteworthy relationship between stock market returns and macroeconomic factors, while suggesting that the BSE 500 is a better choice for all equity indices, as the index also shows a significant relationship with all macroeconomic variables. BSE500 is a composite index comprising all sectors with low, mid and large cap securities, therefore it reflects the impact of macroeconomic factors most efficiently, taking it as a market proxy. This study was carried out in the context of India and can be replicated for other countries.

The current empirical study attempts to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of the Indian stock market concerning two composite indices (BSE 500 and BSE Sensex) and eight sectoral indices of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) (Auto, Bankex, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Health Care, Information Technology, and Realty) of India, and compare the composite indices of India with three global indexes S&P 500, Nikkei 225, and FTSE 100. The daily data from January 2019 to May 2020 have been considered in this study. GLS regression has been applied to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the multiple measures of volatility, namely standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis of all indices. All indices’ key findings show lower mean daily return than specific, negative returns in the crisis period compared to the pre-crisis period. The standard deviation of all the indices has gone up, the skewness has become negative, and the kurtosis values are exceptionally large. The relation between indices has increased during the crisis period. The Indian stock market depicts roughly the same standard deviation as the global markets but has higher negative skewness and higher positive kurtosis of returns, making the market seem more volatile.

VUСA is a chaotic and rapidly changing business environment that, based on the variability, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the modern world, transforms the approach of banks to the analysis of financial stability. The aim of the paper is to improve tools for monitoring the impact of VUCA-world conditions on the financial stability of banks, namely a model for studying and analyzing the impact of the modern business space “VUCA” on the financial stability of the country's banks. To test the model, the method of constructing regression equations in multifactor regression analysis is used. For this study, data from some Eastern European countries (Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova) were used, and time series data were used for 10 years from 2010 to 2019.
Having considered the definition of “VUCA-world conditions”, the model of modern business space “VUCA” was developed when analyzing the activity of banks in the studied countries. Drivers, consequences, requirements and macroeconomic indicators of the countries’ activities in the VUСA-world conditions are determined. The VUCA-world conditions also consider the study of key macroeconomic indicators that allow building long-term relationships throughout the value chain. The analysis of the studied Eastern European countries showed that with the increase of factors of GDP growth, GNI per capita growth, research and development costs, foreign direct investment, and net inflow of 1%, the effective ratio of bank capital and assets also increases. The assessment, in contrast to the existing ones, makes it possible to consider the impact of the macroeconomic environment of banks on their financial stability.