International Stock Market Dependencies: The Causality Approach

The research explores interconnections among the nation's stock exchanges over a more extensive time frame using indices. Factor analysis and Granger causality analysis were conducted on the weekly returns of the stock market index for selected countries. When factor analysis is applied to the stock markets of countries, the first observation is that the first cluster comprises the stock markets of developed countries. Emerging and vulnerable economies comprise the third group, while Asian markets represent the second category. Next, the causal relationships between countries are examined and it is found that there are significant integration relationships, both in the level of integration within each factor and in the integration between countries selected from different factors. As anticipated, dominant markets were present within each factor group, and the USA and UK held a dominant position in nearly all countries regardless of their factor distinctions.