The Determinants of Securities Trading Activity: Evidence from four European Equity Markets

Silvio Camilleri () and Francelle Galea

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Purpose: The main objective of this study is to obtain new empirical evidence about the connections between equity trading activity and five possible liquidity determinants: market capitalisation, dividend yield, earnings yield, company growth, and the distinction between recently-listed firms as opposed to more established ones. Design / Methodology / Approach: We use a sample of 172 stocks from four European markets and estimate models using the entire sample data and different sub-samples to check the relative importance of the above determinants. We also conduct a factor analysis to re-classify the variables into a more succinct framework. Findings: The evidence suggests that market capitalisation is the most important trading activity determinant, and the number of years listed ranks thereafter. Research limitations / implications: The positive relation between trading activity and market capitalisation is in line with prior literature, while the findings relating to the other determinants offer further empirical evidence which is a worthy addition in view of the contradictory results in prior research. Practical implications: This study is of relevance to practitioners who would like to understand the cross-sectional variation in stock liquidity at a more detailed level. Originality / value: The originality of the paper rests on two important grounds: (a) we focus on trading turnover rather than on other liquidity proxies, since the former is accepted as an important determinant of the liquidity generation process, and (b) we adopt a rigorous approach towards checking the robustness of the results by considering various sub-sample configurations.

Keywords: Dividend yield; European equity markets; Factor analysis; Liquidity; Liquidity determinants; Market capitalisation; Newly established firms; Securities markets; Trading activity. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G10 G12 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fmk and nep-mst
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in The Journal of Capital Markets Studies 3.1(2019): pp. 47-67

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:95298

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