GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS 2008: PERFORMANCE OF LISTED PROPERTY FIRMS IN GREATER CHINA

Abstract

The paper investigates the impact of the recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on the stock performance of 161 listed property firms in the Greater China (GC) Economic Region. In addition, an evaluation of their financial performance, based on equity valuation ratios (Price-to-Earnings- P/E and Price-to-Book- P/B), profitability ratios (Return on Equity- ROE and Return on Assets- ROA) and debt ratios (Debt-to-Equity and Debt-to-Assets), was conducted to understand how the fundamental financial bases of these companies how changed over the crisis period. More importantly, the relationship between stock performance and these financial measures are derived; in particular, how well the financial variables used in this research explains stocks performance over the sample period which comprises of the GFC period. By using the paired-sample t-test and non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, they revealed statistically significant decline in returns by the property firm stocks in all 3 countries. Hong Kong and Taiwan stocks also registered significant increased volatility post-crisis. Correlation analysis conducted supports theoretical hypotheses established linking stock performance and financial variables. Specifically, P/E, P/B, ROE and ROA are positively related to stock performance (measured by the Jensen’s Alpha- JI, Sharpe Index- SI and Treynor Index- TI). Debt on the other hand is negative correlated. An Ordinary Least Square (OLS) Regression model also found the Dividends Per Share (DPS), Earnings Per Share (EPS) and Net Asset Value (NAV) to strongly explain share price.