Price and Liquidity Effects of Switching Exchange Listings

By examining the price and liquidity effects around announcements of switching exchanges by firms within structurally similar markets in Taiwan, the authors uncover that while switching firms experience only a trivial effect around the application announcement days, there is a pronounced price rise during the prelisting period. Subsequently, they find only a partial reversal of this prelisting increase over the listing days and the postlisting period. However, they observe that stock liquidity improves following the application announcements, peaks around the listing days, and remains at high levels after listing. Further results suggest that firms' announcements that they are switching exchanges are not followed by improved earnings relative to performance-matched control firms. Collectively, these results reveal that transfer stocks in Taiwan convey information about permanent improvements in liquidity rather than better earnings prospects, which is consistent with the stock marketability implications of managerial exchange-switching decisions.