LONG MEMORY IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN STOCK MARKETS

The paper examines long memory in equity returns and volatility for stock markets in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe using the ARFIMA-FIGARCH model in order to assess the efficiency of these markets in processing information. The findings are diverse. Significant long memory is demonstrated in the equity returns of Botswana; while, in South Africa this result is not statistically different from zero. For Zimbabwe returns are characterised by an anti-persistent process. Furthermore, all the markets investigated provide evidence of long memory in volatility with the exception of Botswana where there is no evidence of volatility persistence and hence the return from taking risk in this market cannot be predicted on the basis of previous values. Copyright (c) 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2008 Economic Society of South Africa.