Does US Financial Stress Explain Risk–Return Dynamics in Indian Equity Market? A Logistic Regression Approach

The present study attempts to capture the impact of the US financial stress on the risk–return dynamics in the Indian equity market by employing Markov regime switching and binary logistic regression model. The span of data ranges from 2004 to 2013. The study uses weekly closing local values of benchmark equity indices ‘CNX Nifty 50 and S&P 500’ and St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index (SFSI). The said index captures stress in the US financial system on a weekly basis. The Markov results support the existence of ‘Bull’ regime as well as ‘Bear’ regime in the Indian equity market. Corresponding to this, the logistic regression model indicates a positive impact of the US financial stress on the probability for the existence of bear regime. Particularly, the probability for the existence of bull regime approaches zero, when the stress in the US financial system crosses the level of two. The results support strong implications for the investors in the Indian equity market against the stress in the US financial system.