Published Online:July 2026
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Applied Finance
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJAF060726
DOI:10.71329/IUPJAF/2026.32.3.105-125
Author Name:Naina and Kapil Gupta
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Finance
Download Format:PDF
Pages:105-125
This study examines how behavioral factor, specifically investor sentiment, influences stock returns in India. An aggregate sentiment index (ASI) is developed to assess its influence on stock returns, positing that sentiment constitutes a priced risk factor in India, even when accounting for the risk variables identified by Fama and French (2015). Sixteen portfolios are created based on size, book-to-market equity, profitability and investment, comprising a total of 84 observations for each portfolio from April 2016 to March 2023. The results suggest that the sentiment risk effect is not consistent across the constructed portfolios. Sentiment negatively influences the behavior of stock returns across 16 portfolios, and sentiment risk has a detrimental effect on excess returns in a portfolio. The findings provide policymakers, scholars and other stakeholders with important insights for understanding the dynamics of Indian stock market.
The past few decades have witnessed the emergence of efficient market hypothesis (EMH) and behavioral finance as the two pillars of modern asset pricing (Hudson & Muradoglu, 2020). The failure of the traditional models to decipher the unpredictable market behavior led to the origination of behavioral finance (Andleeb & Hassan, 2023; Kumar et al., 2022). Behavioral finance offers valid explanation regarding mispricing in stock markets by explicating the inconsistency in investors’ conduct (Duxbury & Wang, 2024). As a result, asset prices deviate from their funda