Journal Press India^®

             This issue of FOCUS focuses on topical and contemporary issues in finance and accounting including demonetization, cryptocurrency, financial shenanigans, related party transactions and mergers and acquisitions. The issue begins with a paper by Sanjeev Dhar, Prof. Raj K Kovid and Dr. Mridul Dharwal on ‘Corporate governance, related party transactions and firm performance: A panel data analysis’. Using data for Indian companies listed on NSE, they observe that income from related parties are negatively associated with firm performance and different forms of related party transactions do not enhance firm performance. The paper by Dr. Sanjeeb Kumar Dey and Debabrata Sharma focuses on financial shenanigans which are accounting or financial reporting tricks and techniques used by management to mislead investors about a company’s financial performance or economic health. Their paper focuses on understanding the concept of financial shenanigans along with its types. Another topic of current importance in the area of finance is cryptocurrency which is the focus of the paper by Pingala Roy Chowdhury. The paper draws a comparison among the top 5 cryptocurrencies available in India based on the market capitalisation rate. It also highlights the merits and demerits of each type of cryptocurrency and preference for one particular cryptocurrency over the other.

                  This issue has two papers each on the banking sector and the stock markets, which are an integral part of the financial sector of an economy. One paper on banking is by Ch. Balaji & Dr. G. Praveen Kumar on the volatility of selected public sector banks with BSE Bank Index. They look at the connection amongst hazard and returns in value shares, by taking information of State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda. They find that with regard to hazard, the two banks are performing well while in relation to profits, the State Bank of India was performing better in contrast to Bank of Baroda. The other paper on banking is by Dr. Rajit Verma and Dr. Kulwant Kumar Sharma, who do a comparative study of public and private banks with regard to bank recapitalization announcement. The study comparatively analyses the stock prices of selected twelve Indian banks and using the event study technique, they find that out of 12 banks, 7 public sector banks reflected significant positive results while two banking stocks reported negative and insignificant results on the event. The paper by Vanitha Chawla examines the day of week effect in Indian stock markets. Using regression with dummy variables the results indicate significant positive returns on Monday for the all the selected indices under the sample period, thereby implying that the day of week effect is present in the Indian stock markets and markets are inefficient. Another paper on stock market is by Dr. Ruchika Gahlot who studies the effect of demonetisation on stock prices of different sectoral indices and Nifty listed on NSE. The results revealed that Nifty, automobiles, FMCG, financial services, media and banking and real estate were major sectors affected by demonetisation decision as they are based on cash transaction.

                An interesting paper by Dr. Harish Kumar Singla is on the opinion of finance professors about market efficiency in India. Using a questionnaire survey for finance professors in India, the author finds that most professors do not believe that markets are efficient in any form. They believe that information at every level i.e. past, present and future (insider) is useful and can be used for profit making. This issue also has a paper on the ‘Effect of Mergers and Acquisitions on performance of enterprise value’ by Dr. T. Sathishkumar and P.N. Assai Tamby. Their analysis shows that the acquiring firms drastically improved in stock price and business performance. Most of the acquiring firms witnessed significant change in the performance of Enterprise Value in the post-merger period. The paper by Rahul Sarkar and Dr. Ram Prahlad Choudhary looks at the impact of capital structure on financial performance for the case of select automobile companies in India. Using Fixed Effects Model for the case of sixteen automobile companies, they find that return on equity is fairly explained by capital structure composition.

                We hope that this issue makes for an interesting reading and wishing all a happy and prosperous 2019!

Prof. Muralidhar A. Lokhande

Dr. Jitendra Janardan Ahirrao

Dr. Pavnesh Kumar

         Editors