Modeling the Impact of Economic Shocks on the Stock Returns of the Sugar Industry

One of the most important problems in the agricultural sector is the lack or deficiency of processing of agricultural products; however, in processing two products including sugar beet and sugarcane, Iran has a suitable position in the world, being able to expand this activity by creating the necessary infrastructure and attracting private and public investments through the capital market, and provide the ground for relative self-sufficiency in sugar industry. In the present study, by examining and identifying macroeconomic variables affecting the stock returns of the sugar industry in the Iranian Stock Exchange in the period 2010 to 2019 using the genetic function approximation algorithm, the effect of shocks of these variables on the returns of such stocks was examined using panel vector auto-regression method. The study results showed that among the six macroeconomic variables, the variables of government exchange rate, OPEC oil prices and liquidity volume had significantly positive effects on the stock returns of the sugar industry, so that with the increase of these variables, the incentive to invest would increase in the sugar industry; however, land prices had a significantly negative effect on the stock returns of the sugar industry, because with the increase in prices in the land market, the incentive to invest in this market would increase and, consequently, investment to buy shares in the sugar industry would decrease. According to the impulse reaction functions, the reaction of the sugar industry stock returns to the government exchange rate was initially negative and then, from the second period onwards, increased, and the sugar industry stock return reaction to the OPEC oil price shock have been effective and upward up to five periods; and also, the reaction of the sugar industry stocks to the shock of the variables of liquidity volume and land prices at the beginning of the period was upward and then, from the third to the fifth period, was downward. According to the study results, it is suggested that with the increase of government exchange rate, OPEC oil prices and liquidity, the management of the sugar industry should try to attract more financial resources from the capital market so that with more investment, it could pave the ground for the development of this industry and self-sufficiency in processing of this strategic product. Policymakers are also advised to prevent capital outflows by controlling price fluctuations in parallel markets.