The reaction of the financial market on the auditor report: an empirical study on service companies listed in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE)

Abstract

Auditing has a very important role in the economic life and the auditor’s report is considered as the end of accounting information system in the enterprise, where it gives full and thorough summary of information content. So, this study aims to identify the existence level and form of financial market reaction on the auditor report by defining the change impact of the external auditor’s opinion on the stock prices of service companies listed in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) in the period 2010–2017. The study population consists of all the 37 service companies listed in ASE, in which the audit report type has changed from unqualified to qualified and vice versa, where the number of observations was 48 – 32 from unqualified to qualified and 16 from qualified to unqualified. The results showed that there is statistically significant difference of stock prices after changing the report type from unqualified to qualified, where its prices declined as a result of this change, while there weren’t any statistical differences of stock prices as a result of changing the report type from qualified to unqualified. So, companies must pay more attention to the auditor report issued on its behalf, and work at its best to keep this report unqualified.