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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 95 No. 3 2010

Ownership concentration, foreign shareholding, audit quality, and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China

Ferdinand A. Gul1,2,3; Jeong‐Bon Kim4; Annie A. Qiu5,6

1 Hong Kong Polytechnic University · 2 Monash University · 3 Sunway University · 4 City University of Hong Kong · 5 Citigroup · 6 CITIC Group (China)

open access

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of largest-shareholder ownership concentration, foreign ownership, and audit quality on the amount of firm-specific information incorporated into share prices, as measured by stock price synchronicity, of Chinese-listed firms over the 1996–2003 period. We show that synchronicity is a concave function of ownership by the largest shareholder with its maximum at an approximate 50% level. Further, we find that synchronicity is higher when the largest shareholder is government related. We also find that foreign ownership and auditor quality are inversely associated with synchronicity. Finally, we show that the amount of earnings information reflected in stock returns is lower for firms with high synchronicity.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2009.11.005
Volume
95
Issue
3
Pages
425-442
Language
en
Sources
crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex

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