Sentiment, growth and value investments: Evidence from Korean Stock Listings

In this paper, the authors relate the investment performances of value and growth stocks to investor sentiment. The authors' research objectives are twofold: first, the authors verify positive long-run abnormal returns of value investing under pessimistic investor sentiment. Second, the authors experiment a horse race between the fundamental and behavioral views of growth stock returns. Using a thirteen-year sample of Korea Exchange (KRX)-listed firms, the authors find a positive relation between the value premium and stock market sentiment: while growth investing can be relatively dominant in a pessimistic cycle under depressed investor sentiment, value strategy can outperform in an optimistic period. As a result, the authors confirm the usefulness of style investing adapted to investor psychology.