Russian stock market reaction to dividend announcements
We study the reaction of the Russian stock market to dividends announcements of traded Russian companies in 2010-2012, during the recovery after the financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009. The sample includes actively traded Russian companies on the RTS (then Moscow exchange) that regularly paid dividends on ordinary shares. The analysis evidenced that in contrast to the results obtained previously for a number of developed and emerging markets the Russian market on average reacted negatively to the announcement of decreased, as well as increased amount of dividends. These results coincide with finding of the previous studies of Russian market reaction to dividends announcements. Based on the analysis of development of the Russian economy, specifics of corporate governance and dividend payments of Russian companies, we examine in detail the reasons for such a reaction.