Equity Markets Flashcards
Issues Concerning Equity Markets: why do equities outperform bonds?
Equity Premium- additional risk above the risk-free rate is accounted for through an equity premium
Issues Concerning Equity Markets: Corporate Governance, who owns and controls the company?
Those who own major companies have political power. Results in a wider impact on the economy.
Issues Concerning Equity Markets: Market Efficiency, are equity markets efficient, do prices reflect all available information to the market?
If markets are efficient, then all information is already incorporated into prices, and so there is no way to “beat” the market because there are no undervalued or overvalued securities available.
Issues Concerning Equity Markets: Are dividend payments or capital gains the best method for
earning a return from equities?
Depends on a personal tax.
High income earners would prefer capital gains.
Issues Concerning Equity Markets: Does anyone gain from mergers and acquisitions?
Research in own time
Issues Concerning Equity Markets: How does the market value of a firm relate to the value of underlying assets?
Market value for a firm may diverge significantly from book value or shareholders’ equity. A stock would generally be considered undervalued if its market value is well below book value.
In what industry does the value of underlying assets have a large effect on market values?
Property industry
Issues Concerning Equity Markets: What effect do stock prices have on the economy as a whole?
Wealth effect
Issues Concerning Equity Markets: Should financing be through equity markets or from the banks?
US and UK have always been financial economies.
In Continental Europe historically companies have raised finance through the banks.
What are shares a form of?
Long-term finance for joint stock companies
Do shares have a maturity date or value?
No
How can the number of shares decrease?
Managements sometimes decide to ‘buy back’ shares from shareholders
For large companies, where are shares traded?
Stock exchanges
What two types doe shares come in?
Ordinary shares
Preferred shares
What does a share entitle you to?
Voting rights
What do shareholders tend to recieve?
A share of the profits in the form of a dividend after all prior claims
Since a share gives its owner a claim upon the nominal profits of a firm, what can we expect?
- Dividends to vary but grow in the long-run
- The market value of the shares to grow in the long-run (‘capital gains’).
What dividends do owners of preference shares receive?
A fixed dividend
Where do preference shareholders rank?
After bondholders but before ordinary shareholders, if a firm goes into liquidation.
For a firm financed entirely by shares, what does the total market value of the shares represent?
The value of the firm
For a firm financed entirely by shares, what does the rate of return required by shareholders represent?
The firm’s cost of capital
Where are the issue of new shares made?
In the primary market
Who issues shares in the primary market?
Issued by an investment bank which underwrites (guarantees) the issue, meaning that it guarantees to buy any shares unsold at the issue price.
What are the methods of issue of shares?
A ‘public offer for sale’ or by a ‘placing’ with investors thought likely to be interested
What is a firm’s first issue of shares called?
Initial public offering
What is a rights issue?
If the new issue is an issue of additional shares, it is often known as a ‘rights issue’. This is because existing shareholders have a prior claim (a ‘right’) to buy the new shares.
What are the various trading arrangements on secondary markets?
Quote driven (or dealer) markets
Auctioneer (or matching) markets