Media Sentiment and UK Stock Returns

This paper is the first to determine the effect that media sentiment has on stock returns for UK companies and tests whether there is any return predictability contained in the UK media sentiment data. We show that measures of positive and negative media sentiment have significant relationships with stock returns on the day news articles are published and that there is return predictability inherent in negative media sentiment the day following publication of media articles. We construct a news- based trading strategy to demonstrate the application of these results that earns significant positive abnormal returns.