Is there any evidence of a value-growth factor on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange?

New evidence suggests that share returns are cross-sectionally predictable in that shares which appear to be inexpensive relative to the company's underlying values (value shares), out-perform those shares that are perceived to provide substantial growth in the long run (growth shares). The magnitude of the return premium suggests that these returns are induced by factors other than risk or perhaps suggests that our measures of risk are incorrect. There now seems to be little doubt that the new evidence indicates that the cross-section of average returns are predictable and that abnormal returns can be obtained by holding value shares. This is the value-growth phenomenon. The existence of this phenomenon casts doubt on the two major paradigms of modem finance, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Efficient Market Hypothesis. There has been limited empirical testing in South Africa as to the existence of this internationally observed phenomenon. This study's objective is to investigate whether or not this value-growth phenomenon exists on the JSE. The study examined monthly excess returns on portfolios of value and growth shares over the period 1987 to 1996. The ratio of a company's market value to its book value of common equity was used as the measure of value and growth. The conclusions of this research study indicate that a value-growth phenomenon does exist on the JSE and that the existence of superior returns by value shares is especially marked in the period post 1992 when South Africa returned to the international financial arena.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

College of Accounting

Year dc:date.issued

1998

Author dc:creator

• Graham, Mark

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18286

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18286