Investigating Herd Behavior in Industries Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange and Crude Oil Market

Herd Behavior is one of the biases behavioral that affects financial markets and decision making. Herd Behavior in financial markets is the tendency of a group of investors to follow the actions of others and to ignore personal beliefs and information and following the market consensus. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Herd Behavior between crude oil prices and the stock market. In addition, the effect of variables such as upturns and downturns periods, investor tendencies and market liquidity on the relationship between the two variables will also be tested. This paper contributes to the debate on the cross-markets correlation by extending tests of herding behavior between the stock market and the crude oil market. We study herding behavior at the sector level during extreme oil market movements. Furthermore, we investigate the cross herding behavior between the two markets while including the volatility of the oil prices and investors’ sentiment. We use a modified version of the cross section absolute deviation model to infer the impact of the oil market on industry herding.

This research is an applied research in terms of purpose and a correlational research in terms of method. The research sample, after imposing the intended restrictions, included companies enlisted on the Tehran Stock Exchange, in the period from 2015 to 2020. To test the research hypotheses, a panel data model was used, and to measure the Herd Behavior extends the work of Chang & et al (2000). Then we tested the research hypotheses.

The research’s Results confirm the Herd Behavior in the Iranian stock market. The return of the crude oil market has an effect on the Herd Behavior  in the Tehran Stock Exchange. In addition, this behavioral biasess is greater during periods of crude oil market upturns than during periods of downturns. The results also showed that more liquidity in the market is associated with more Herd Behavir.

This paper examines herding behavior within Tehran Stock Exchange industries and explores the impact of oil prices on the intensity of herding. It further investigates the asymmetric effect of oil prices moves (downturns and upturns) on herding within sectors, while including both the volatility of the crude oil market and investors’ sentiment. The reason behind the inclusion of oil prices and volatility is to study the possible integration between the stock market and oil market and to infer the possible cross-herding behavior between them. There is herd behavior in the Tehran Stock Exchange and the crude oil market as one of the most important sectors of the economy and the largest source of government revenue also affects it. Therefore, the capital market and the effects it receives from the crude oil market should be considered more and more by economic decision makers.