Market Reaction to Bonus Issues and Stock Splits in India : An Empirical Study

Corporate events have numerous effects on the stock market, as found by several research studies in the world. In this regard, the aim of this paper is to test the semi-strong form of efficiency in the Indian equity market, following an event study approach. The events considered in this paper are bonus issues and stock splits that took place in the market from 1996 to 2008. These events are tested for abnormal returns and liquidity. The data selected is free from the impact of confounding events. –30 to 30 days investigation window is taken for all the events to test the abnormal returns and the change in liquidity. The results suggest that the Indian market reacts to the stock split announcements but not to bonus issues, and the change in liquidity is significant for stock splits at 1% significance level, whereas with 5% level of significance both bonus issues and stock splits show significant change in liquidity from pre- to post-event period