Financial Market Integration in Pakistan: Evidence Using Post-1999 Data

The recent wave of financial sector reforms and internationalisation in emerging markets has increased perceived interlinkages within various sectors of national financial markets. For example, the existence of a strong linkage between stock prices and exchange rates is a popular topic in academic research. Similarly, changes in stock prices and exchange rates are expected to influence movements in interest rates. A number of hypotheses suggest such a causal relationship. For instance, using a goods market approach, any changes in the value of currency would affect the competitiveness of multinational firms and hence influence stock prices [Dornbusch and Fischer (1980)]. Similarly, the hypotheses of ‘exchange rate pass-through’ and ‘interest rate pass-through’ suggest that changes in exchange rates and/or interest rates could affect stock prices. The portfolio balance model suggests that fluctuations in stock prices influence exchange rate changes.