Role of leverage and liquidity risk in asset pricing: evidence from Indian stock market

Abstract

Purpose Asset pricing revolves around the core aspects of risk and expected return. The main objective of the study is to test different asset pricing models for the Indian securities market. This paper aims to analyse whether leverage and liquidity augmented five-factor model performs better than Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), Fama and French three-factor model, leverage augmented four-factor model and liquidity augmented four-factor model. Design/methodology/approach The data for the current study comprises records on prices of securities that are part of the Nifty 500 index for a time frame of 14 years, that is, from October 2004 to September 2017 consisting of 183 companies using time series regression. Findings The results indicate that the five-factor model performs better than CAPM and the three-factor model. The model outperforms leverage augmented and liquidity augmented four-factor models. The empirical evidence shows that the five-factor model has the highest explanatory power among the entire asset pricing models considered. Practical implications The present study bears certain useful implications for various stakeholders including fund managers, investors and academicians. Originality/value This study presents a five-factor model containing two additional factors, that is, leverage and liquidity risk along with the Fama-French three-factor model. These factors are expected to give more value to the model in comparison to the Fama-French three-factor model.