Market Anomalies in the A.S.E: The Day of the Week Effect

Abstract

This study examines empirically the day of the week effect anomaly in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). This phenomenon is observed in many developed and developing markets, according to the existing literature. The results of the most significant studies and the possible explanations of this anomaly are presented briefly in this paper.

For the empirical part of the study, we used closing prices of the Composite Index for the period 03/01/1994-30/12/1999 and for the sub periods 03/01/1994-31/12/1996 and 02/01/1997-30/12/1999. In addition, we used closing prices of the FTSE20 Index for the period 25/07/1997-30/12/1999. Our results indicated that the day of the week effect is strongly observed in the Greek Stock market during the second sub period. However, it is in a different form than the one observed in the other developed capital markets since the negative returns occur on Thursdays instead of Mondays or Tuesdays as it has been observed in most of the other markets.