Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 10(1): 73-84 (2002) ISSN: 0128-7702© Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
The Temporal Price Relationship between the Stock Index Futures andthe Underlying Stock Index: Evidence from Malaysia
MAHDHIR ABDULLAH, ANNUAR MOHD. NASIR, SHAMSHER MOHAMAD,HUSON JOHER ALIAHMED & TAUFIQ HASSAN
Department of Accounting and FinanceFaculty ofEconomics and Management
Universiti Putra Malaysia43400 Serdang
Selangor, Malaysia
Keywords: Stock index futures, lead and lag relationships
ABSTRAK
Kontrak niagaan ke depan telah diperkenalkan di pasaran derivatifMalaysia pada bulan Disember1995 dengan pelancaran kontrak niaga ke hadapan di atas Indeks Komposit Bursa Saham KualaLumpur. Oleh kerana kontrak ini barn diniagakan di pasaran derivatif Malaysia (MDEX) banyakisu berkenaan produk kewangan ini masih belum sempat dikaji. Kajian ini meneliti kajiantemporal (iaitu kaitan lat dan tunggu) antara harga kontrak ke depan (FKLI) yang berasaskanIndeks Komposit BSKL dan harga Indeks Saham Komposit BSKL (KLSE CI). Kajian ini yangmeliputijangka masa lima tahun dibahagikan kepada tigajangka masa yang berlainan berasaskantahap kemudahubahan harga yang berlainan, untuk meneliti pola kaitan pergerakan harga.Penemuan kajian ini menunjukkan pasaran kontrak ke depan mendahului pasaran BSKL selamasehari dalam keadaan ekonomi stabil dan tidak terdapat pola kaitan harga antara pasaran inidalam keadaan di mana menghadapi kemudahubahan harga yang tinggi.
ABSTRACf
The stock index futures was introduced in Malaysia in December 1995 with the launching of thefutures contract on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Composite Index. Due to its recentnessin the country, many issues pertaining to this equity derivatives instrument have not beenexplored. Thus, the development of stock index futures opens many opportunities for researchin this area. This study examines the temporal relationship between the price of the KualaLumpur Stock Exchange Composite Index futures contract (FKLI) and its underlying stockindex, the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Composite Index (KLSE CI). The five-year periodunder study is split into three subperiods to observe the price co-movement pattern underdifferent volatility levels. The study finds that futures market tends to lead the spot market by oneday during the periods of stable market, and there is a mixed lead-lag relationship between thetwo markets during the period of highly volatile market.
INTRODUCTION
This study examines the temporal pricerelationship between the Kuala Lumpur StockExchange Composite Index futures contract(FKLI) and the Kuala Lumpur Stock ExchangeComposite Index (KLSE CI) for the period from15th December 1995 to 31 st December 2000. The)bjective of the research is to determine theead and lag relationship between the futures
market and the spot market particularly in thecontext of an emerging equity market likeMalaysia. The lead and lag pattern between thefutures and the spot markets exists when theinformation is processed at different speeds inthe two markets. Price discovery takes place inthe market that processes the information fasterthan it does in the other market. The fmdings ofthis study would be of benefit to investors to
Mahdhir Abdullah, Annuar Mohd. Nasir, Shamsher Mohamad, Huson Joher A1iahmed & Taufiq Hassan
make better and informed invesunent decisionswhether they trade in both the futures and thecash markets or if they trade in only one of themarkets.
UTERATURE
There are a number of related studies that havebeen done in this area but most of them arebased on developed markets like the U.S. Veryfew have been done in emerging markets.Kawaller et aL (1987) undertook a study on pricerelationships between the S&P 500 futurescontract and the S&P 500 index and found thatthe futures market tends to lead the spot marketby between twenty and forty-five minutes. Herbstet al. (1987) investigated the lead and lagrelationship between the stock indices and thefutures contracts for the Value Line index andits futures, and for the S&P 500 index and theS&P 500 index futures. They fIrst tested therelationship using daily data and found thatthere is a time lead of less than one day betweenthe futures market and the spot market. Tovalidate and refme the result, they extended thestudy using intraday data and found that thestock index futures prices lead those of theircash indices for both the Value Line and theS&P 500 indices. The Value Line index futuresis found to lead the Value Line index betweenzero and sixteen minutes, while the S&P 500index futures tends to lead its underlying stockindex between one and eight minutes. Schwarzand Laatsch (1991) conducted a lead-lag studyon Major Market Index Maxi futures in relationto market maturation. They found that the spotmarket dominates the futures market in priceleadership in the first ten months of the MMIMaxi futures contract trading. The priceleadership pattern did not change in thesubsequent ten months of futures trading butwas reversed in the following five months. Theauthors found that there is a large increase inprice leadership for the futures market andthere is a substantial increase in pricing efficiencyas the futures market becomes more mature.
There are also studies that found bidirectional relationships between the stock indexfutures and the stock index. Stoll and Whaley(1990) performed a lead-lag study using theS&P 500 index and the S&P 500 index futures,and the Major Market Index (MMI) and MMIfutures. They found that futures returns leadthose of the cash indices by up to ten minutes
and this relationship is found to be bi-directional.A study by Tse (1999) on Dow Jones IndustrialAverage (DJIA) index and DJIA index futuresfound that price discovery takes place in thefutures market but there exists a significant bidirectional information flow between the twomarkets.
Outside the United States, investigation ofthe lead and lag relationship between the futuresmarket and the spot market generally results inalmost similar findings as the studies done inthe United States. Shyy et at. (1996) performeda study in French markets and found that CAC40 futures returns lead the CAC 40 index returnsby three to five minutes when they usedtransaction data but the causality was reversedwhen they used the midpoint of bid and askprices. A study by Frino and West (1999) onAustralian markets found that the futures returnslead index returns by twenty to twenty-fiveminutes and there is some evidence of feedbackfrom the cash market to the futures market.Twite (1991) performed a lead-lag study on theAustralian All Ordinaries index and concludedthat there is a strong contemporaneousrelationship between the futures and the cashmarkets, and there is also evidence that futuresreturns lead the spot returns by one day.Grunbichler et at. (1994) studied the relationshipbetween the screen-based DAX index futuresand the floor-traded DAX index and found thatthe futures returns lead the spot returns byfifteen minutes and there is weak evidence thatthe spot returns lead the futures returns by fiveminutes.
In Asian markets, there have been a fewstudies on the lead-lag relationship between thefutures market and the spot market. Tse (1995)performed a study on the Nikkei Stock Averagefutures traded on SIMEX and the underlyingstock index. The author found that the spotprice is influenced by the spot and futures pricefrom up to two days previously, while the futuresprice is not affected by the past spot or futuresprices. Min and Najand (1999) did a study onKorean futures and spot markets and found thatthe futures market leads the spot market by aslong as thirty minutes.
In general, most of the studies cited abovefound that the stock index futures tends to leadthe underlying stock index. However, there arestudies that found bi-directional causality betweenthe futures and the spot markets.
74 Pertanikaj. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 0.1 2002
The Temporal Price Relationship between the Stock Index Futures and the Underlying Stock Index
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
Two sets of data are used in this study namelythe data for the FKLI futures contract and thedata for the KLSE CI. The data set for the FKLIfutures contract which consists of the dailysettlement prices and the daily trading volume isgathered from the Malaysia DerivativesExchange's (MDEX) historical database providedby its Strategic Planning and ProductDevelopment Department. The daily closingprices of KLSE CI are obtained from ThomsonFinancial Datastream. The sample of data isfrom 15t11 December 1995 until 31" December2000. The sample is split into three subperiodsto reflect the changing volatility levels throughoutthe five-year period under review. The subperiodsare:1) Subperiod 1 - from 15th December 1995 to
30th June 1997;2) Subperiod 2 - from 1st July 1997 to 30th
September 1998; and3) Subperiod 3 - from 1" October 1998 to 31 st
December 2000.
The subperiods are arbitrarily selected basedon the patterns of price fluctuations and thetrading volume of the spot-month FKLI contractas reported in the descriptive statistics insubsection 3.1. Subperiod 1 is the period ofstable prices and low trading volume, subperiod2 is the period of highly fluctuating prices and
high trading volume while subperiod 3 is theperiod of mildly volatile prices and fairly hightrading volume. The graphical illustration of theFKLI settlement price and the contract's volumefor the period under study is presented in Fig. 1below.
Descriptive Statistics
In this section, the descriptive statistics of thespot-month FKLI and the KLSE CI are discussedin greater detail. The mean, highest, lowest andstandard deviation of the spot-month FKLI'ssettlement prices and trading volume duringdifferent subperiods are looked into. Similarstatistics for the KLSE CI's closing prices arediscussed in this section. Table 1 shows thedescriptive statistics for the spot-month FKLIfutures contract during the three differentsubperiods. Looking at the price level, it hasbeen observed that subperiod 1 records thehighest average settlement price of 1,140.59index points. The average settlement price dropsto 630.58 index points in subperiod 2 andbounces back to 740.31 points. In terms of therange of price fluctuation, subperiod 1 has thesmallest range while subperiod 2 has the largest.Such observations are confirmed by the standarddeviations of 14.62 percent, 76.49 percent and44.37 percent in subperiod 1, subperiod 2 andsubperiod 3 respectively.
Spot·Month FKU Fu1ures Ccrtract - Price and Volume15 Decer1tlef 1995 - 31 Decerrtler 2IXXl
1=
10c00l.2CCO
1.CUJO!IXXJ
~OOJO ~
'0
~ro:n 0-
M
OOJD~
~
«XUroo
= mo
Fig. 1: Spot-month FKlJ futures contract: Settlement price and volumefrom 15th December 1995 to 31" December 2000
PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 No.1 2002 75
Mahdhir Abdullah, Annuar Mohd. Nasir, Shamsher Mohamad, Huson Joher Aliahmed & Taufiq Hassan
With regards to the closing price of theKLSE CI, similar patterns are observed as shownin Table 2. The index is at above the 1,000 levelin subperiod 1, then falls to 636.65 in thefollowing subperiod and rebounds to 733.32 insubperiod 3. The KLSE CI fluctuates in a narrowband in subperiod 1 but the range widens insubperiods 2 and 3. The annualised standarddeviations are 13.75 percent, 61.58 percent and25.34 percent in subperiod 1, subperiod 2 andsubperiod 3 accordingly.
The other variable that is of concern in thisstudy is the trading volume of the stock indexfutures contract. The volume has been found to
form a significant pattern during the five-yearperiod under study. The spot-month FKLIcontract trading volume is very low in the earlystage of the index futures trading but jumpssubstantially in late 1997 until the third quarterof 1998. Thereafter, the volume drops but stillremains at reasonably high levels. The descriptivestatistics of the spot-month FKLI futures contractare presented in Table 3. From the summarisedinformation, it can be seen that subperiod 1 hasthe lowest trading volume with an average dailyturnover of 351 contracts. Subperiod 2 has anaverage daily volume of 2,507 contracts andrecords the highest daily volume of 11,238
TABLE 1Descriptive statistics: Spot-month FKLI contract
Subperiod 1 Subperiod 2 Subperiod 3 Whole Period
Mean 1,140.59 630.58 740.31 835.32Median 1,133.55 608.90 750.50 799.00Maximum 1,272.50 1,076.10 1,026.50 1,272.50Minimum 976.90 274.90 374.90 274.90Variance 4,194.32 35,804.60 21,923.57 62,867.06Standard deviation 64.76 189.22 148.07 250.73
Mean of annualised returns 6.52% -42.21% 37.08% 2.419%Annualised standard deviation of returns 14.62% 76.49% 31.67% 44.37%
TABLE 2Descriptive statistics: KLSE CI
Subperiod 1 Subperiod 2 Subperiod 3 Whole Period
Mean 1,140.83 636.65 733.32 833.78Median 1,135.17 623.98 745.25 799.54Maximum 1,271.57 1,084.88 1,013.27 1,271.57Minimum 977.49 262.70 360.10 262.70Variance 4,071.65 37,243.27 22,297.75 63,401.10Standard deviation 63.81 192.99 149.32 251.80
Mean of annualised returns 6.60% -48.15% 34.59% -1.091%Annualised standard deviation of returns 13.75% 61.58% 25.34% 35.92%
TABLE 3Descriptive statistics: Spot-month FKLI's volume
Subperiod 1 Subperiod 2 Subperiod 3 Whole Period
TotalMeanMedianMaximumMinimwnVarianceStandard Deviation
132,820351266
1,96517
89,268299
777,1162,5072,277
11,238246
2,290,3141,513
693,2111,2471,0914,171
146490,426
700
1,603,1471,289
95711,238
171,453,430
1,206
76 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 No.1 2002
The Temporal Price Relationship between the Stock Index Futures and the Underlying Stock Index
where AY, is the difference or change in Yattime t, (\ - \);
X-I is a lag one observation in series Y;p is the autocorrelation coefficient; and
Il, is the white noise error term.
The second test is to check whether theKLSE CI and the FKLI series are autocorrelated.To test for autocorrelation, a measure known asDurbin-Watson d statistics is used. If there existsan autocorrelation, a corrective measure has tobe taken to avoid spurious results. The DurbinWatson d statistic is computed using the followingequation:
is the KLSE CI return at time t or[In (KLSE, /KLSEt-\)];is the FKLI return at time t or[In (FKLI, / FKLI,)];
!\-,-k is the FKLI return at lag k;!\-'+k is the FKLI return at lead k;a is the regression intercept;~k is the coefficient of the independent
variable; andis the error term.
Where
The null hypothesis that there is nosignificant lead-lag relationship between theindex futures returns and the stock index returnsis developed and is then tested. The hypothesisis presented below:
which is the ratio of the sum of squareddifferences in successive residuals to the residualsum of squared.
Mter cleaning for nonstationarity andautocorrelation, the test for lead-lag relationshipbetween the FKLI futures and the KLSE CI isperformed. In this study, a multiple regressionmodel is employed with the KLSE CI returnsbeing the dependent variable and the lagged,contemporaneous and lead FKLI returns beingthe explanatory variables. The equation of themultiple regression model is expressed as follows:
The sign of the coefficient, ~k is expected tobe positive since it is anticipated that the spotmarket and the futures market move in tandemwith each other. Since the study attempts todetermine the lead and lag relationship underdifferent market volatility levels, the regressionanalysis is performed separately for all the threesubperiods. In addition, the regression is run forthe whole period from 15 December 1995 until31 December 2000. In running the multipleregression for the whole period, two dummyvariables are introduced and included in theregression equation. The inclusion of these
(2)
(1)
"" A A )2d = L,(U, - U'_I
"" A 2L, u ,
AX = (p-l)X_1 + Il,
The data sets are first tested for theproperties of time series namely the test forstationarity and the test for autocorrelation. Aunit-root test known as the Augmented DickeyFuller (ADF) method is used to test forstationarity of the KLSE CI and the FKLI series.The ADF method performs a simple test forstationarity by regressing the first-difference of atime series against its lagged series as shown inequation 1. First, the ADF is done at level termto test for the existence of a unit root. If thereexists a unit root, the series is nonstationary.Therefore, ADF has to be performed at the firstdifference. The process is continued until theseries is found to be stationary.
contracts. The third subperiod records moderatelyhigh volumes with a daily volume of 1,247 contractson average.
From the descriptive statistics discussedabove, the three subperiods can be classified inthe following manner:1) Subperiod 1 is the period of stable prices
and low futures trading volume;2) Subperiod 2 is the period of a highly volatile
market and high trading volume in thefutures market; and
3) Subperiod 3 is the period of a mildly volatilemarket and fairly high futures tradingvolume.
Gujarati Damodar N. 1995. Basic Econometrics, p. 506. Singapore: McGraw Hill.
PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 No. I 2002 77
Mahdhir Abdullah, Annuar Mohd. Nasir, Shamsher Mohamad, Huson Joher Aliahmed & Taufiq Hassan
dummy variables is to reflect the existence ofqualitative variables, in this case the threedifferent subperiods. Since there are threequalitative variables, the rule that "the numberof dummies be one less than the number ofcategories of the variable" is followed!. Thereason for including the dummies in theregression is to determine whether eachsubperiod is significant or dominant inexplaining the variation in the KLSE CI. Themultiple regression equation with dummyvariables is re-arranged in the following manner:
where C is the intercept;l\, is the KLSE CI return at time t or
[in (KLSE, / KLSE,)];~., is the FKLI return at time t or
[in (FKLI, / FKLI,)];~'-k is the FKLI return at lag k;R is the FKLI return at lead k;·'Ft+k
b is the coefficient of the independentk
variable;a
1is the coefficient of dummy variableD!;
a2
is the coefficient of dummy variableD
2; and
e, is the error term.
Dl 1 if subperiod 1,o otherwise;
D2 1 if subperiod 2,o otherwise.
Again, a hypothesis is developed and tested.There are two sets of hypotheses in this model the first is to test whether the lead and lag FKLIreturns are significant and the second is to testwhether the dummy variables are significant.The two sets of hypothesis are presented below:
Set 1Ho 1\ = 0HI 13k .. 0
Set 2Ho 13k = 0H! 13k " 0
RESULTS
The results of the tests are presented in thefollowing sub-sections:
Test jar Stationarity
The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test forstationarity on KLSE CI provides a result thatthe absolute value of the computed "t(tau) statistic(1-1.0621 ) is less than the absolute value of thecritical Dickey-Fuller t value (1-2.8641 at 1 percent)when the test is performed on level terms. Forthe FKLI, a similar result is found where theabsolute value of the computed Dickey-Fuller "tvalue ( 1-1.0991 ) is less than the absolute value ofthe critical "t (1-2.8641 at 5 percent level ofsignificance). When tested on the first-differenceof both the KLSE CI and the FKLI series, theabsolute value of the computed "t(tau) statisticsis found to be greater than the absolute value ofthe critical Dickey-Fuller "t value. The computed"t(tau) statistics for the fIrst-difference KLSE CIand the first-difference FKLI are -15.664 and 16.307, respectively. Therefore, it is not sufficientto reject the null hypothesis that the series arestationary. In simpler terms, it is said that boththe KLSE CI and the FKLI series are stationaryat first-difference, or statistically expressed asintegrated of order 1, 1(1). The results arepresented in Tables 4 and 5.
Test jar AutoCUTTelation
In testing for autocorrelation, the Durbin-Watsond statistics are computed to be 2.038 whichsuggests that there is no positive or negativeautocorrelation.
Multiple Regression
First, the multiple regression is run separatelyfor the three subperiods to see how the lead andlag pattern changes under different volatilitylevels. The result for sub-period 1 is presentedin Table 6. From the summarised information inTable 6, it is reported that the regression modelhas a high adjusted R squared of 0.7976. Interms of the significance of the explanatoryvariables, the t-value for FKLI,-o (36.780) is foundto be higher than the critical t-value at 1 percentlevel of significance (2.576). Therefore it issufficient to reject the null hypothesis that thecoefficient of FKLI,_o is equal to zero.Furthermore, the coefficient of FKLI'_I is foundto be significant at a 5 percent level with its tvalue (2.549) higher than the critical t-value at 5
78 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 0.1 2002
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TABLE 4Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) results for the level term
KLSE CIADF Test Statistic -1.062 1% Critical Value*
5% Critical Value10% Critical Value
-3.438-2.864-2.568
*MacKinnon critical values for rejection of hypothesis of a unit root.
Durbin-Watson Statistic
FKLIADF Test Statistic -1.099
1.991
1% Critical Value*5% Critical Value10% Critical Value
-3.438-2.864-2.568
*MacKinnon critical values for rejection of hypothesis of a unit root.
Durbin-Watson Statistic 1.991
The KLSE CI and the FKLI series are nonstationary at the level term since the computed t(tau) statistics are lessthan the critical .(tau) statistics.
TABLE 5Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) results for the first-difIerence
KLSE CIADF Test Statistic -15.664 1% Critical Value*
5% Critical Value10% Critical Value
-3.438-2.864-2.568
*MacKinnon critical values for rejection of hypothesis of a unit root.
Durbin-Watson Statistic
FKLIADF Test Statistic -16.30659
1.995
1% Critical Value*5% Critical Value10% Critical Value
-3.4382-2.8642-2.5682
*MacKinnon critical values for rejection of hypothesis of a unit root.
Durbin-Watson Statistic 1.997
The KLSE CI and the FKLI series are stationary at the first-difference, or 1(1) since the computed t(tau) statisticsare greater than the critical t(tau) statistics.
percent (1.960). It is therefore safe to say thatthere exists a leading effect from the futuresmarket to the spot market by one day at a 5percent level of significance.
The results for subperiod 2 are reported inTable 7. This is the period of a highly volatilemarket and a high trading volume in the futuresmarket. The regression model has a highadjusted R-squared of 0.8823 during this
subperiod. From the table, it is observed that
FKI.J,_2' FKLI'_I' FKLI,~, FKLI'+3' and FKLI'+4 aresignificant at a 1 percent level, FKLI'-4 issignificant at a 5 percent level of significancewhile FKLI'_3' FKLI'+I and FKLI'+2 are notsignificant. Therefore, it is concluded that thereis a mixed lead-lag relationship between theFKLI futures returns and the spot KLSE CIreturns during the period of high volatility.
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Mahdhir Abdullah, Annuar Mohd. Nasir, Shamsher Mohamad, Huson Joher Aliahmed & Taufiq Hassan
TABLE 6Results: Subperiod 1 (from 15th December 1995 to 30"' June 1997)
R Squared = 0.8022Adjusted R Squared = 0.7976
Estimated CoefficientVariable Name
FKLI'-4FKLI,_,FKLI'_2FKLI,_,FKLI,-{}FKL1l+1
FKLI'+2FKLI,+,FKLI'>4Constant
Durbin-Watson = 2.0546
-D.24642E-Dl-D.I0149E-Ol0.29200E-Dl0.56604E-Dl0.819950.40191E-Dl
-D.23667E-Dl0.58897E-D20.18508E-D20.37793E-04
Standard Error
0.2141E-Dl0.2240E-Dl0.2230E-Dl0.2220E-Dl0.2229E-Dl0.2217E-Ol0.2224E-Dl0.2249E-Dl0.2153E-D10.1543E-03
T-Ratio
-1.151-D.4531.3102.549**
36.780*1.813
-1.0640.2620.859E-Dl0.245
P-Value
0.2500.6500.1900.0110.0000.0700.2870.7930.9310.807
* Significant at 1 percent** Significant at 5 percent
TABLE 7Results: Subperiod 2 (from 1" July 1997 to 30"' September 1998)
R Squared = 0.8855Adjusted R Squared = 0.8823
Variable Name
FKLI'-4FKLI,_,FKLI'_2FKLI,_,FKLI,-{}FKLI,+,FKLI'+2FKLI,+,FKLI'>4Constant
Estimated Coefficient
0.32039E-Dl-D.14835E-Ol0.70569E-Dl0.130140.734320.24602E-Dl
-D.23609E-OlO.72408E-D1
-D.67640E-Dl-D. 16871E-D3
Standard Error
0.1524E-Dl0.1553E-Ol0.1558E-Dl0.1553E-Dl0.1565E-Dl0.1552E-Ol0.1558E-Dl0.1552E-Dl0.1521E-Dl0.5373E-D3
T-Ratio
2.102**-D.9564.529*8.380*
46.920*1.585
-1.5164.667*
-4.447*-D. 3140
P-Value
0.0360.3390.0000.0000.0000.1130.1300.0000.0000.754
Durbin-Watson = 2.1010
* Significant at 1 percent** Significant at 5 percent
Subperiod 3 is found to have a meaningfulpattern with FKLI'_l and FKLI,-{} being significantat a I percent level. The t-value for FKLI'_l andFKLI'-<l are calculated to be 9.492 and 42.880,respectively. These values are higher than thecritical t-value of 2.576 at a 1 percent level ofsignificance. Thus, it is sufficient to reject thenull hypothesis for b_, and boo This means thatthere is evidence that the futures market leadsthe spot market by one day during this subperiod,the period of mildly volatile markets and fairly
high trading volume. The results are presentedin Table 8.
The multiple regression model is thenextended to include the whole period from 15December 1995 until 31 December 2000. Theresult shows that the model has a high goodnessof fit with an adjusted R-squared of 0.8448 (Table9). In terms of the significance of theindependent variables, the following variablesare found to be significant at a 1 percent level- FKLI,-o' FKLI,_I' FKLI'_2' FKLIl+" FKLIt+4. Variables
80 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 No.1 2002
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TABLE 8Results: Subperiod 3 (from 1" October 1998 to 31" December 2000)
R Squared = 0.7711Adjusted R Squared = 0.7675
Variable ame Estimated Coefficient Standard Error T-Ratio P-Value
FKLI'-4 -D.13358E-D1 0.1609E-D1 -D.830 0.406
FKLI,_s 0.28946E-D1 0.1612E-D1 1.796 0.073FKLl
t_2
0.24236E-D1 0.1617E-01 1.498 0.134FKLI,_1 0.15407 0.1623E-D1 9.492* 0.000FKLI,.() 0.69464 0.1620E-D1 42.880* 0.000FKLlt+1
-D.24204E-D2 0.1624E-D1 -D. 1490 0.882
FKLI'+2
-D.12831E-D2 0.1619E-D1 -D.793E-D1 0.937FKLlt+s -D.13061E-D2 0.1612E-D1 -D.8101E-01 0.935FKLlt+4 0.24450E-D1 0.1617E-D1 1.512 0.131Constant 0.93208E-D4 0.3096E-03 0.3010 0.763
Durbin-Watson = 1.9858
* Significant at 1 percent** Significant at 5 percent
TABLE 9Results: Whole period (from 15th December 1995 to 31" December 2000)
R Squared = 0.8461Adjusted R Squared = 0.8448
Variable Name
FKLI'-4
FKLI,_sFKLl
t_2
FKLIl_1
FKLI,.()FKL1t+'FKLI
'+2
FKLI,+sFKLl t+4
DlD2Constant
Estimated Coefficient
0.19943E-D1-D.74357E-020.57447E-D10.131990.727200.19325E-01
-D.19904E-D10.55266E-D1
-D.49475E-01-D.36694E-D4-D.33290E-D30.69549E-04
Standard Error
0.8866E-020.8957E-020.8958E-020.8945E-020.8981E-D20.8945E-020.8955E-D20.8955E-D20.8862E-020.4457E-030.4843E-030.2845E-03
T-Ratio
2.249**-D.83226.413*
14.76*80.97*
2.160**-2.223**6.172*
-5.583*-D.8233E-D1-D.66670.2445
P-Value
0.0240.4050.0000.0000.0000.0310.0260.0000.0000.9340.5050.807
Durbin-Watson = 2.0380
* Significant at 1 percent** Significant at 5 percent
FKLIt-4' FKLI
'+1 and FKLI
t+2 are found to be
significant at a 5 percent level. However, lag 3days FKLI (FKLI,_s) is found to be insignificant.[t is therefore concluded that there is a bi:lirectional relationship between the futuresnarket and the spot market However, the results:annot be taken as meaningful since the whole>eriod consists of the period of high volatilitysubperiod 2) that may cause the markets to
deviate from their true behaviours. To investigatewhether any of the subperiods is dominant inexplaining the relationship for the whole periodof study, dummy variables Dl and D2 areincluded in the regression model. From theresults, it is found that both Dl and D2 are notsignificant in explaining the variation in theKLSE CI returns.
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Mahdhir Abdullah, Annuar Mohd. Nasir, Shamsher Mohamad, Huson Joher Aliahmed & Taufiq Hassan
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
From the analysis of lead and lag relationshipbetween FKLI futures returns and the KLSE CIreturns, it is found that the lead-lag patternbetween the two markets changes under differentvolatility levels. In subperiod 1, the period ofstable prices, it is found that the futures marketleads the spot market by one day. During theperiod of a highly volatile market (subperiod 2),there is a mixed lead-lag relationship betweenthe futures market and the spot market. Thefutures market is found to lead the spot marketby two days and on t-4, and to lag the spotmarket on t+3 and t+4. In subperiod 3, thefutures market is found to lead the spot marketby one day. Finally, the analysis on the wholeperiod found that there is a leading and laggingeffect from the futures market to the spot market.
Since subperiod 2 is the period of highvolatility, the mixed results that were obtainedcannot be taken as meaningful to explain thetrue relationship between the futures and thespot markets. The same situation applies to thewhole period. The other two subperiods arefound to have a one-day lead coming from thefutures market to the spot market. Therefore, itis safe to conclude that the futures market leadsthe spot market by one day during the stableprice periods but the lead-lag relationship ismixed during the period of price instability. Theleading effect from the futures market to thespot market is reckoned to be due to threereasons, namely, the infrequent trading of KLSECI's component stocks; low transaction costsand capital requirement to trade futures; andfmally, the absence of short-selling restrictionsin the futures market. The elaboration of theabove reasons are discussed below:
The Infrequent Trading of KLSE CPs ComponentStocks
The KLSE CI consists of one hundred stockslisted on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange(KLSE). It must be noted that not all the onehundred component stocks of KLSE CI aretraded simultaneously at any point in time. Somestocks may react to the new informationimmediately, some may take a longer time, andsome may not react at all. The stock indexfutures, on the other hand, reacts to newinformation immediately since the buying andselling of a futures contract is done in a package.
In other words, when buying the FKLI contract,the buyer is purchasing a contract that consistsof one hundred component stocks of KLSE CI.Due to infrequent trading of the KLSE CIcomponent stocks, it is anticipated that the stockindex will react to new information more slowlythan the stock index futures. Hence, the stockindex futures price tends to lead the spot stockindex.
Lower Transaction Costs and Capital Requirementto Trade in Futures
In the futures market, the brokerage fee andcommission is RM60 per contract, or RM120 perround-trip. This is equivalent to about 0.1 percentto 0.2 percent of the contract value per roundtrip. The transaction cost is relatively lower thanthe transaction costs to buy or sell stocks in thecash market which average around 0.75 percentof the transaction value. Because of lowertransaction costs in the futures market, it iseasier for investors to trade the futures contract.In addition, investors do not have to pay the fullamount of the contract value to trade futures.They only have to pay an initial margin ofRM4,OOO and have to top up any daily lossesthrough the mark-to-market process. This smallcapital requirement also promotes inexpensivetrading in the futures market. Both lowtransaction costs and small capital requirementmake trading in the futures market cheaperthan trading in the spot market, cause the futuresmarket to process new information faster, andthus induce the futures price to move earlierthan the spot price.
The Absence of Short Selling Restrictions in theFutures Market
Unlike the stock market, the futures marketallows short-selling activities. Investors can sellthe futures contract although they do not holdit. Without any restrictions on short selling,futures market should be more liquid than thespot market. Due to higher liquidity, the futuresmarket processes information faster than thespot market, hence the initial price movementshould take place in the futures market.
The above are the most prominent reasonswhy the futures market processes the informationfaster than the spot market does. Hence, theprice discovery takes place in the futures market.
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The Temporal Price Relationship between the Stock Index Futures and the Underlying Stock Index
CONCLUSION
The findings of the temporal price relationshipbetween the FKLI futures contract and itsunderlying stock index can be summarised as
follows:1) Subperiod 1 (15 December 1995 to 30 June
1996) - there is a one-day lead coming fromthe futures market to the spot market;
2) Subperiod 2 (1 July 1996 to 30 September1998) - there is a mixed lead-lag relationshipbetween the two markets;
3) Subperiod 3 (1 October 1998 to 31December 2000) - there is a lead-lagrelationship where the futures market isfound to lead the spot market by one day;and
4) Whole period (15 December 1995 to 31December 2000) - there is a bi-directionalrelationship between the futures and thespot markets.
Because of a very high volatility and unstablemarket condition during subperiod 2, the resultsfor subperiod 2 and the whole period are notregarded as meaningful in explaining the truerelationship between the two markets. The resultsfor subperiod 1 and subperiod 2 are taken andit is concluded that there is evidence of a leadlag relationship between the futures and thespot markets in the context of emerging equitymarkets of Malaysia with the futures marketleading the spot market by one day.
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(Received: 11 October 2001)
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