Bankers, Markets & Investors

Factors affecting the attractiveness of African financial markets: The case of the WAEMU stock market assessed using quantile regression

Théophile BASSENE, ALASSANE DIALLO, ADAMA BA — Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our study contributes to the literature on the dynamics of African financial markets by examining the dependence structure between the BRVM, the economic fundamentals of the WAEMU and global factors. Using the quantile regression approach, our empirical findings show that investors have to overcome several difficulties to correctly understand the dynamics of the BRVM market. These difficulties reduce the attractiveness of the BRVM. Tax incentives to attract more companies to the stock market, in particular companies in the exporting sectors (mining and agricultural sectors), could help to increase the liquidity and attractiveness of the BRMV. This can concretely materialize by creating a new index: BRVM Export sectors.

Impact of Subprime and Covid-19 crises on WAEMU stock exchange efficiency: a classic Hurst vs dynamic Hurst approach

OUMOU KALSOUM DIALLO, PIERRE MENDY — Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Financial markets are alternative sources of financing, above all, in the current context of financial globalization and the development of information and telecommunication technologies. In the WAEMU zone in particular, the size of the economies seemed insufficient to supply national markets without high costs. The union’s authorities therefore set up a regional market that seemed to be a beneficial outcome : the WAEMU stock market. This stock exchange has undergone significant modernizations since its inception, with the aim of achieving optimal resource allocation. The informational efficiency of this stock exchange has become a hot topic of interest among researchers and professionals, giving rise to a growing number of publications on the subject. Our article is set in this context and aims to analyze the WAEMU’s weak-form efficiency. Based on the limitations of traditional methods, we use new approaches. Firstly, the classic Hurst is a tool for characterizing market structure and analyzing efficiency. The results highlight the multifractal nature of the WAEMU’s market and the rejection of the null hypothesis of no memory in the return series. Given the resurgence of crises, it would be interesting to analyze stock market behavior during such events. We also study the impact of crises (subprime and covid-19) on efficiency, using the dynamic Hurst exponent to account for efficient market varying with time. The results show that during periods of crisis, the stock market alternates between efficiency and inefficiency. They also reveal that Covid-19’s impact was faster than subprime crisis. They also reveal that covid impact crisis was faster than that of subprimes. However, despite the big spike linked to the covid context, the composite index picked up and continued in the same vein.

Hybrid Yield curves modeling in WAEMU Zone

MOHAMED LAMINE MBENGUE, BABACAR SENE, MAME ABDOU DIOP, MODOU DIENG — Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In the WAEMU zone (West African Economic and Monetary Union.), the development of the financial market is hampered by uncertainties related to information asymmetries. In order to reduce them, this study proposes a quantitative model for evaluating the hybrid zero-coupon (ZC) yield curve, which takes into account investors’ perception of risk. This innovative approach is based on the model of the risk-free rate curve, as well as the model of decomposition of the term structure of risk premia, which results in the explicit formulation of the term structures of credit risk and liquidity premiums and the anticipated recovery rate by the financial market in the event of issuer default. Over the period 2019-2023, the empirical application reveals that the hybrid ZC yield curve is sensitive to monetary policy decisions, as well as to the parameters of the risk-free yield curve. Moreover, the term structure of the risk premiums becomes stable when it is estimated by a hybrid model, composed of three extreme probability distributions, namely the Weibull-Gumbel models for interpolation and Log-Normal for extrapolation.

Tracking Error Determinants in Mutual Funds: The Case of Regional Stock Exchange in West Africa

MOHAMED LAMINE MBENGUE, BABACAR SENE, MAME ABDOU DIOP, MODOU DIENG — Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The BRVM (Regional Stock Exchange in West Africa) mutual fund (MF) market has grown rapidly in recent years. The performances obtained have allowed specific financial market shares to be included in the MSCI Frontier Market Index. This promotion facilitated the visibility of the BRVM to international investors. This study is part of this dynamic and evaluates the tracking errors of MF and their determinants. Results show that entry and exit fees, management fees, strategies, valuation frequencies, and size are determinants of the tracking errors of BRVM MFs.

The regional financial market of the West African Economic and Monetary Union: Lessons to be learned after 25 years of existence

MOR WELLE DIOP, MOHAMED LAMINE MBENGUE — Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An economic, political, institutional and technical success, the regional financial market of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) is the only one in the world shared by several countries, fully electronic and perfectly integrated. Its primary mission is to provide companies with the long-term financing they need to carry out their projects and boost their performance. The aim of this article is to see whether, after 25 years of existence, the financial market has achieved its objectives in terms of mobilizing resources and boosting economic growth. Overall, the results show that the financial market augurs well for the future, particularly in terms of attracting foreign capital, investor confidence and, above all, resilience during the recent crisis of covid 19, comparatively speaking, of African stock exchanges.