Philippine E-Journals

The Effects of Newspaper Reportage Measured in Expressivity Rating on the Philippine Stock Market Index and the Foreign Exchange Rate

Percival S. Gabriel

Discipline: Economics

 

Abstract:

This research was aimed at determining how news and opinion articles published in newspapers affected the stock market performance as indicated by the closing stock market index and the peso value as shown by the foreign exchange rate during the 2004 election campaign, the 2005 Arroyo impeachment attempts, and the 2008 Lozada exposé. To determine the effects, the researcher devised a measure of the expressiveness of newspaper articles known as “expressivity rating.” Newspaper articles published during the three newspaper-article-events were content analyzed, the percentages as to the number of negative, positive and neutral articles taken, and the expressivity rating computed. Correlated with the closing stock market index and the closing foreign exchange rates, results showed there were significant correlations between the expressivity ratings of various types of articles and the stock market index. There were also significant correlations between various types of articles and the closing rate of the foreign exchange. Significant correlations were also derived between the performances of the Philippine bourse and the foreign exchange rate. However, no correlation was found between the expressivity rating of articles dealing purely with market analysis and the stock market index and the foreign exchange rate.