Trading Behaviour and Market Sentiment:Firm-level Evidence from an Emerging Islamic Market

We provide firm-level evidence from an emerging Islamic market that individual investors’ trading behaviour causes weekend sentiment. Using data for 285 companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) for the period from 2002 to 2019 and applying appropriate econometric techniques, the paper has found evidence of a weekend effect both on return and volatility. The results confirm that individual investors’ sentiment drives the weekend effect on the DSE. The ‘information content theory’ and ‘information processing hypothesis’ work for investors so that the market return and volatility become significantly different on Sunday. The market sentiment effect is significant for smaller firms and low dividend yield firms where individual investors are prevalent, suggesting that the trading behaviour of individual investors determines weekend sentiment. A positive feedback relationship exists between returns on Sunday and the previous Thursday for both institutions and individuals. Our results are robust in various alternative specifications.