Monthly effect on GCC stock market

This study empirically examines the impact of effectiveness of both corporate boards and audit committee on foreign ownership in selected non-financial listed companies of the stock markets in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The study was built on fixed effect model and conducted over the period of 2012-2015 for 143 non-financial listed companies on the GCC stock markets. Our results explain that foreign ownership is positively related to the effectiveness of both the boards of directors and the audit committees. The implication of this study may help beneficiaries in making better policy decisions and provide guidance for
corporate managers on the needs of foreign investors.

In financial literature we find numerous studies examining the presence of diverse types of calendar anomalies in different stock exchanges of the world. The current paper aims to investigate the month of the year effect in randomly selected ten companies from banking sector and service sector traded on the Bahrain Bourse for a period of 5 years commencing from 1 st January 2010 to 31 st December 2014. The empirical research was conducted using descriptive statistics and Kruskal–Wallis H-test. The findings of the study revealed that none of the companies selected for the study exhibited significant monthly returns for the study period except Bahrain Maritime and Mercantile International. The paper suggests that the absence of said calendar anomaly may be due to thin trading practiced in the Bahrain stock exchange.