Stock Returns and Fundamentals in the Australian Market

Abstract

This study compares 10 widely used financial performance measures of stock return in the Australian stock market. The five financial measures are calculated on information provided in publicly available financial reports (accounting based financial measures) and the other five are calculated using market information as one of the key variable (market based financial performance). The sample includes companies from all major industries from 2001 to 2010. The panel data analysis shows that market based financial performance measures can better explain stock price variance compare to accounting based measures of financial performance. It has significance for researchers and practitioners seeking to select measures that can empirically explain the performance of company. It has also importance for shareholders tracking performance of companies in order to make profitable investments.