Foreign direct investment and stock market development in Pakistan

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impact of FDI on the stock market development in Pakistan, both aggregate as well as sector wise, the reason being that no such work has been carried out in this context. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on secondary data for the period 1985-2011. Johansen co-integration approach is used for determining relationship among variables for aggregate stock market development in long run. Granger causality test is also applied to check the causal relation between the variables. Correlation analysis and regression analysis has been used for examining the relationship of sector wise development, FDI and economic growth in Pakistan. Findings: The results support the positive role of FDI in boosting the aggregate stock market development in long run. Bi-directional causality between FDI and economic growth has been found along with the uni-directional causality between aggregate stock market development and economic growth. For sector wise development the relationship of FDI is positive in the sectors where FDI concentration is high in recent years whereas and negative in other sectors. Originality/value: Co-integration coefficients showed a positive and statistically strong relationship between FDI and aggregate market capitalization thus reflecting the complementary role of FDI in the stock market development of Pakistan.