Fundamental Factors Determining Share Price in Sri Lanka

This is a study on equity share valuation. In this work, I tried to study the behaviour of certain fundamental factors determining share price in Sri Lanka. It attempts to answer this question: What is the empirical relationship between equity share price and factors like earnings, growth, leverage, risk and company size? To assess the relative influence of the above mentioned fundamental factors on share price I used regression analysis with standard OLS assumption and continuous cross-section analysis was carried out with log linear regression model for the period 1993 through 2001. The sample consisted of 30 shares of a group of 239 shares of firms in all industries except the bank and insurance industry. On the basis of this study, I found; Dividend appears a powerful influence on share than growth and retained earnings. Business risk and financial risk cannot be assessed which are redundant variables. This means there are relatively free from major risk in Sri Lanka Stock Market. Company size is a considerable influence on share prices in which large companies enjoy a high value of the share.