Liquidity, liquidity risk and stock returns: evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

The question of whether liquidity is priced is a subject for a huge volume of papers in the asset-pricing literature. Asset-pricing theory suggests a negative relationship between these two variables as investors demand higher returns to compensate for less liquid stocks. However, the empirical evidence is not unanimous. This paper investigates the relationship between liquidity and stock return in Vietnam by employing an updated dataset of market and financial data of listed companies in the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange ranging from 2007 to 2012. Our results suggest that the relationship between liquidity and stock returns is different in Vietnam stock market. In other words, we document a reliable positive relationship between liquidity measures and stock returns and negative relationship between illiquidity measures and stock returns. However, we do not find evidence in supporting the relation between risk associated with fluctuation in liquidity and stock returns.