How Does Stock Prices Respond to Various Macroeconomic Factors? A Case Study of Pakistan

Over the time everything flourished, at the same token the interrelationship among the stock market prices, returns and macroeconomic factors got attendance of the researchers in the field of finance and economics around the world. In this respect current study is an attempt to investigate the response of various macroeconomic factors (GDP, Money Supply, inflation, exchange rate and Size of firm) toward stock market prices in case of Karachi stock exchange over a period of 1971 to 2012. The study utilizes Autoregressive Distributed lag model (ARDL) technique. The results shows that in long run each factor significantly contribute to the stock price while in shot run some factors were significant while some were not but the error correction term shows significant convergence toward equilibrium. The findings of study suggest that for smoothness of stock market the current factors must be targeted.