Is there a relationship between export reliance and stock performance on Oslo Stock Exchange after an interest rate change? : an event study

Abstract

In this thesis we have conducted an event study to investigate if stocks of companies which are reliant on export are more sensitive to interest rate changes compared to companies which mainly get their revenue from the domestic market. The main findings in the thesis are that there does not seem to be any significant difference in stock behaviour after interest rate changes. We do find some significant results, and quite a few trends, indicating that export reliant stocks benefit slightly more from an interest rate reduction compared to non-export firms, but the results are not consistent. It also seems like non-exporting firms in general perform worse than exporting firm, both when it comes to an interest rate increase and decrease as they often show a negative trend compared to the sector indices. However, we cannot draw any firm conclusions as the results are not statistically significant.