Multifractal Analysis of African Stock Markets During the 2007–2008 US Crisis
Abstract
In this paper, we examine the effects of subprime crisis on the largest African stock markets (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, and Morocco) by testing the fractal market hypothesis. We use a rolling window Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, and find decline in local Hurst exponent and an increase in short-term trading activity for all considered stock markets during the global financial crisis. We furthermore investigate the interrelationships of African and the American stock markets using multi-scale contagion test. Findings suggest that the cross-correlation of African stock markets increases with American markets becoming higher during the crisis sub-period. However, the presence of contagion or interdependence effects are country and time horizon-dependent. Implications of the results are discussed.
