The influence of audit opinions on stock market prices empirical research in companies listed on the ho chi minh stock exchange

THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF BANKING TA THI THU UYEN THE INFLUENCE OF AUDIT OPINIONS ON STOCK MARKET PRICES - EMPIRICAL RESEARCH IN COMPANIES LISTED ON THE HO CHI MINH STOCK EXCHANGE GRADUATION THESIS MAJOR: ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING CODE: 7340301 SUPERVISOR: DR HUYNH THI NGOC ANH HO CHI MINH CITY – 2022 THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF BANKING TA THI THU UYEN STUDENT CODE: 050606180440 HQ6-GE01 THE INFLUENCE OF AUDIT OPINIONS ON STOCK MARKET PRICES - EMPIRICAL RESEARCH IN COMPANIES LISTED ON THE HO CHI MINH STOCK EXCHANGE GRADUATION THESIS MAJOR: ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING CODE: 7340301 SUPERVISOR: DR HUYNH THI NGOC ANH HO CHI MINH CITY – 2022 ABSTRACT Financial Statements are an essential information channel for investors to help them analyze, evaluate, and make investment decisions However, there is a gap between the expectations of business managers and users of financial statements about the truthfulness and reliability of financial statements Therefore, information asymmetry determines investors to call for auditors' services Through the audit reports, the auditors offer a professional, objective, and independent opinion regarding the presentation in financial statements of the true and fair view of the most significant aspects of the financial position and performance, in accordance with the accounting framework This study investigates the effect of the audit reports containing qualifications or an emphasis on matter paragraph related to going concern uncertainty or financial distress on stock market prices in the Ho Chi Minh Stock market In particular, abnormal returns are analyzed around the publication date of this audit report The event study methodology, focusing on a short event window, was used to determine whether there was an immediate market reaction to the audit report announcement A market-based study was conducted on the qualified and unqualified opinions, emphasising paraphrasing the shareholding companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock market during 2018 - 2021 The study's conclusions showed that two types of opinions negatively affect stock prices in short periods, but this effect is not significant In other words, there is no information content in qualified and unqualified with an emphasis on matter paragraph in the HoChiMinh stock exchange DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY I declare that this is my independent thesis The data used in the thesis are of clear origin and published following the law The research results in the thesis are my research and analysis, honestly, objectively, and by following the reality of Vietnam These results have not been published in any previous papers Ho Chi Minh City, November 2022 The Author Ta Thi Thu Uyen ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to send my profound gratitude to all the lecturers at Banking university, in the Office of Academic Affairs, and especially to the Accounting and Auditing Department lectures while studying for a bachelor's degree at the Ho Chi Minh University of Banking Secondly, I would like to express my sincerest and most profound thankfulness to Dr Huynh Thi Ngoc Anh for her guidance and patience in giving me valuable recommendations during my study period I am happy and fortunate to carry out this study under her supervisor Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their support during my study and life Without encouragement and sacrifice, I would not have finished this thesis, so I express my special love and gratitude to them In the implementation process, mistakes are inevitable despite consulting, exchanging, and absorbing suggestions from teachers and friends With the effort to improve more and more, I look forward to receiving valuable advice from teachers and friends Warmest regards Ta Thi Thu Uyen TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 THE NECESSITY OF THE REPORT 1.2 THE AIM OF THE THESIS 1.2.1 Overall objectives 1.2.2 Detail objectives 1.3 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.4 OBJECT AND SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH 1.5 METHODOLOGY 1.6 CONTRIBUTION OF THE THESIS 1.7 THE PROPOSED LAYOUT OF THE THESIS CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH FIELDS 2.1 FOREIGN RESEARCH 2.2 DOMESTIC RESEARCH 2.3 RESEARCH GAP 10 CONCLUSION CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 13 3.1 THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR AUDITING FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND AUDIT OPINIONS 13 3.1.1 The concept and purpose of auditing financial statements 13 3.1.2 The types of audit opinions of financial statements 14 3.2 OVERVIEW OF THE SECURITIES MARKET 15 3.2.1 The conception of the Securities market 15 3.2.2 Stocks 16 3.3 FOUNDATIONAL THEORIES 18 3.3.1 Agency Theory 18 3.3.2 Asymmetric Information Theory 19 3.4 THEORY OF EVENT STUDY METHODOLOGY 20 CONCLUSION CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY 24 4.1 THE METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS 24 4.1.1 The methodology 24 4.1.2 Research implementation process 25 4.2 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS 26 4.2.1 Research hypothesis, sample selection, and research data collection 29 4.2.2 Sampling method 30 4.2.3 Data collection 31 CONCLUSION CHAPTER 33 CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH RESULTS 34 5.1 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH FINDINGS 34 5.2 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPES OF AUDIT OPINION AND STOCK PRICE 40 5.2.1 Effect of the qualified audit opinion on stock prices 42 5.2.2 The effect of the unqualified audit opinion with the emphasis paragraph on the share price 46 CONCLUSION CHAPTER 50 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 51 6.1 CONCLUSION 51 6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS 52 6.2.1 Recommendations for listed companies 52 6.2.2 Recommendations to policy-making agencies 53 6.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 54 6.4 FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS 54 CONCLUSION CHAPTER 55 REFERENCES 56 APPENDIX 60 APPENDIX 1: NUMBER OF NEW INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR ACCOUNTS BY YEAR FROM 2016 TO 2021 60 APPENDIX 2: THE LIST OF RESEARCH SAMPLES 60 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FS Financial Statement ISA International Auditing Standards HNX Hanoi Stock Exchange HOSE Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange SEC Securities And Exchange Commission VSA Vietnamese Standard Auditing VSD Vietnam Securities Depository LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: Event timeline of the study 32 49 Table 5.14: T-test results for CAAR pairs of symmetrical dates around event dates for unqualified opinion with emphasis paragraph 95% Confidence Date Mean Std Std Deviatio Error n Mean Sig Interval of the Difference T df (2tailed) Lower Upper T (-5) - T (5) 022685 090493 013200 -.003884 049255 1.719 46 092 T (-4) - T (4) -.016343 097413 014209 -.044944 012259 -1.150 46 256 T (-3) - T (3) 003648 045366 006617 -.009672 016968 551 46 584 T (-2) - T (2) 010349 103726 015130 -.020106 040804 684 46 497 T (-1) - T (1) -.011628 090334 013177 -.038151 014895 -.882 46 382 T (0) - T (1) 000429 034892 005090 -.009816 010674 084 46 933 T (-1) - T (0) -.012057 093558 013647 -.039527 015413 -.883 46 382 Source: Synthesized from SPSS From this Table of results, there are a few negative effects from the unqualified opinion with an emphasis paragraph on the CAAR containing during the period T(-4)T(+4), T(-1)-T(+1), T(-1)-T(+0) However, the p-values are 0,256, 0,382 and 0,382, respectively, greater than 0.05 Besides, the p-value for each of the other periods is still more than 0.05, meaning there is no significant effect for the unqualified audit report with an emphasis paragraph on share prices and returns during all days of the test period 50 CONCLUSION CHAPTER Through the descriptive statistical results, the author presents the result of types of audit opinions during the study period Next, the alpha and beta parameters in the OLS regression model of each stock are presented to indicate the relationship between expected returns and market returns, which are also the basis for calculating abnormal returns Finally, the T-Test is used to test the research hypothesis and, on that basis, conclude the study In addition, the author also presents the results of the stock market reaction to each type of audit opinion, including the qualified and unqualified, with an emphasis paragraph The study results showed no clear reaction to the change in stock prices to both audit opinions Through a p-value of > 0.05, the H1 and H2 hypotheses are rejected; the two types of audit opinion had no significant effect on the share price during the event window five days before and after the publication of the audit report 51 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6.1 Conclusion This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the value of the audit report in providing information to users of the financial statements by examining the impact of the audit opinion containing qualified and unqualified opinions, with a matter of emphasis related to uncertainty about the continuous operability or financial crisis on the stock market price of companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange To accomplish this research objective, the author uses the event research method with a market-based research model over four years 2018-2021 Through measuring the change in the market share prices and abnormal returns of listed companies in the seven-day event window before and after the publication of the audit report on the HOSE, the estimated window is 100 days The sampling process selected 96 audit reports of listed companies in Vietnam With the experimental results obtained, the study has answered the research questions posed previously: ―Does Two types of the audit opinion, including the qualified opinion and an unqualified opinion with emphasis, affect the market price of the stock?‖ The research results show that the AAR receives more negative than positive values on different days in the event window, showing stock price reaction negatively to both opinions However, all p-values are greater than 0.05, which means that in the event window before and after the publication of the audit report (-5;+5), hypothesises H1 and H2 are rejected The statements audit includes qualified and unqualified with emphasis paraphrase not have has no significant effect on the stock market price CAAR is calculated to see the stock market's reaction during the event window, resulting in CAAR getting a value less than and a p-value greater than 0.05 it shows that both types of audit opinion have a negative impact on stock price, but this effect is 52 insignificant In addition, the author has tested CAAR over a shorter period to see if the audit opinion significantly impacts stock prices over this shorter period The result shows that CAAR receives a value less than zero at some periods, but most of those have p-values greater than 0.05 It can be concluded that both the audit reports are no significant effect on share prices and returns during almost days of the test period Therefore, it can be said that, generally, the audit opinions observed are not informative to investors, nor are they useful tools to help them in their decisionmaking This may be because investors not understand the audit report's significance or appreciate its value The results of this study also provide additional evidence of the influence of audit opinion on stock price volatility in a developing market From the above research results, the author proposes recommendations to improve the significance of the audit opinion to investors in Vietnam 6.2 Recommendations 6.2.1 Recommendations for listed companies The delay in providing the financial statements after the audit to the public leads to investors not having timely information about the auditor's opinion as a basis for decision-making (Dibia, N O., & Onwuchekwa, J C , 2013) Therefore, investors will have to use information channels or other analytical tools This may explain the fact that the audit reports consisting of qualified or unqualified opinions with an emphasis paragraph are not a timely source of information to the investor in Viet Nam because of a reason below: Although there are regulations of the Stock Exchange on the time limit for providing information, specifically the financial statements that have been audited to the public, the fact shows that delay in information disclosure still occurs According to data in this study, 37/96 companies violate the regulations on disclosure of audit reports to the outside (accounting for 38.5%) Besides, On the website of the Stock Exchange, there is information related to the issuance of documents reminding 53 businesses that violate this regulation Some studies show that the type of financial statements and the type of audit opinion also affect the timeliness of financial statements The audit report of financial statements containing negative opinions has a longer time limit for issuing financial statements (Yuyanti, R., & Mulya, H , 2020) Therefore, on the side of listed companies, in order to contribute to creating an efficient market, the author recommends a number of solutions as follows: Firstly, improve the professional capacity and ethics of the accounting staff in the enterprise This is a requirement to promptly prepare financial statements in accordance with the law and ensure the truthfulness of financial statements, thereby creating favourable conditions for the audit work of independent auditors Second, proactively select enterprises to perform audit services Choosing a reputable auditing firm with a large and professional staff will increase the assurance that the audited financial statements presented to the public are prepared honestly, reasonably, and in a timely manner in accordance with the law Thirdly, in the case of slow release of the audited financial statements to the public, the causes and responsible parties must be determined to be immediately corrected to limit the possibility of repetition Finally, listed companies must be properly aware of the positive effects of timely and honest disclosure of information on the company's operations 6.2.2 Recommendations to policy-making agencies The stock market is under the strict control and supervision of policymakers One of the regulations stemming from this study is the timing of the publication of audit reports Therefore, policymakers should strengthen the management of the disclosure of information to the market by listed enterprises In case of non-compliance with regulations, it is necessary to implement stronger sanctions to improve the compliance of enterprises 54 6.3 Limitations of the study The study has provided empirical evidence about the audit report's value for Vietnamese stock market users However, the study still has many limitations, as follows: Firstly, the scope of the research sample of the thesis is still limited, and the author just experimented with companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange for four years, leading to the number of observations that meet the topic's requirements is still small Second, the author used a market-based research method to determine the influence of audit opinion on stock price volatility during the 4-year study period Inheriting from previous studies, the author has used the event window method to limit the possibility of simultaneous effects of different factors on stock prices However, the study could not rule out other events that may have occurred during the event window Although there are benefits to using event window method in event research, such as the simplicity and ease of interpretation of the results, there are also some limitations to its use This method provides a short-term effect on stock price without considering any effects of other factors over the same period, resulting in abnormal returns that the current events of interest may not cause 6.4 Future research directions In order to overcome the limitations presented in the above section, the study proposes a number of directions for future research as follows: Firstly, increase the sample size included in the study by extending the research period and implementing it on both stock exchanges in Vietnam, HOSE and HNX Second, consider further possible effects on stock prices during the study period so that confounding observations can be removed 55 CONCLUSION CHAPTER Based on the research results of Chapter 5, in this chapter, the author has made a number of recommendations to listed companies, audit firms, investors, and regulatory and issued policies agencies to improve the timeliness of the audit report to the public, the public's confidence in the auditor's opinion, as well as the awareness of investors about the role of the audit report At the same time, the thesis has outlined the limitations of the topic and suggested future research directions 56 REFERENCES List of Vietnamese documents Ánh Tuyết (2022, 10 27) Báo động tình trạng cơng ty kiểm tốn khơng chấp hành đúng, đủ luật pháp Truy cập tại: , [ngày truy cập: 18 tháng 11 năm 2022] Bạch Đức Hiển (2008) Giáo Trình 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Empirical evidence from China securities market Audit Theory Research, 1, 26-36 Yuyanti, R., & Mulya, H (2020) Effect of Company Size, Audit Profitability, Leverage, and Audit Opinion on Audit Delay with Audit Quality as Moderators (Empirical Study of Listed Mining Companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2014-2018 Period) 60 APPENDIX Appendix 1: Number of new individual investor accounts by year from 2016 to 2021 Number of new individual investor accounts by year (2016 - 2021) 1.800.000 1.534.363 1.600.000 1.400.000 1.200.000 1.000.000 800.000 600.000 393.659 400.000 200.000 141.561 205.958 255.040 188.646 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Source: The Vietnam Securities Depository Appendix 2: The list of research samples AGM An Giang Import - Export Company BWE Binh Duong Water Environment JSC C32 CIC39 Corporation CCI Cu Chi Commercial & Industrial Developing Investment JSC CIG COMA 18 Joint Stock Company CMX Camimex Group JSC CTI Cuong Thuan IDICO Development Investment Coporation 61 DAG Dong A Plastic JSC DAH Dong A Hotel Group JSC 10 DCM Petro Viet Nam Ca Mau Fertilizer JSC 11 DHM Duong Hieu Trading and Mining Development JSC 12 DLG Duc Long Gia Lai Group JSC 13 DQC Dien Quang Joint Stock Company 14 DXV Da Nang Construction Building Materials & Cement JSC 15 FCM Fecon Mining Joint Stock Company 16 GIL Binh Thanh Import - Export Production & Trade JSC 17 HAG Hoang Anh Gia Lai Joint Stock Company 18 HAS Hacisco Joint Stock Company 19 HOT Hoi An Torurist Service Joint Stock Company 20 HQC Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corporation 21 HNG Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agricultural JSC 22 HU1 HUD1 Investment and Construction JSC 23 HU3 HUD3 Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company 24 HVN Vietnam Airlines JSC 25 ITA Tan Tao Investment and Industry Corporation 26 KMR Mirae JSC 27 KOS KOSY Joint Stock Company 28 LCG Lizen Joint Stock Company 29 LEC Central Power Real Estate Joint Stock Company 30 LGC CII Bridges & Roads Investment JSC 31 LGL Long Giang Investment & Urban Development JSC 32 MCG MCG Energy and Real Estate JSC 33 NAV Nam Viet Joint Stock Company 34 NNC Nui Nho Stone JSC 35 OGC Ocean Group Joint Stock Company 62 36 37 PGV Power Generation Joint Stock Corporation Pha Le Plastics Manufacturing and Technology Joint Stock PLP Company 38 PLX Viet Nam National Petroleum Group 39 POM Pomina Steel Corporation 40 POW PetroVietnam Power Corporation 41 PTB Phu Tai Joint Stock Company 42 PTC Icapital Investment Joint Stock Company 43 PTL Victory Capital Joint Stock Company 44 PVD PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation 45 QBS Quang Binh Import & Export JSC 46 QCG Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Joint Stock Company 47 SCD Chuong Duong Beverages Joint Stock Company 48 SII Sai Gon Water Infrastructure Corporation 49 SJD Candon HydroPower Joint Stock Company 50 TDH Thu Duc Housing Development Corporation 51 TEG Truong Thanh Energy and Real Estate JSC 52 TGG Louis Capital JSC 53 TNI Thanh Nam Group JSC 54 TNT TNT Group JSC 55 TSC Techno - Agricultural Supplying Joint Stock Company 56 TTF Truong Thanh Furniture Corporation 57 VAF Van Dien Fused Magnesium Phosphate Fertilizer JSC 58 VFG Viet Nam Fumigation Joint Stock Company 59 VGC Viglacera Corporation – JSC 60 VNE Vietnam Electricity Construction Joint Stock Corporation 61 VNL Vinalink Logistics Joint Stock Company 62 VPG Viet Phat Import Export Trading Investment JSC 63 63 VPH Van Phat Hung Corporation 64 VPS Vietnam Pesticide Joint Stock Company 65 VSH Vinh Son - Song Hinh Hydropower Joint Stock Company 66 YBM Yen Bai Industry Mineral JSC Source: Author's compilation ... for the audit opinion that is the qualified opinion? 1.4 Object and scope of the research The object of the study is the audit opinion on the audit reports of companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh. .. influence of audit opinions on stock market prices Empirical research in companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange" as my graduate thesis research topic 1.2 The aim of the thesis 1.2.1... now Therefore, these are the research gaps, motivating the author to implement the topic "The influence of audit opinions on stock market prices - Empirical research in companies listed on the Ho