Investor sentiment and closed-end fund puzzle in an emerging market

Abstract

This paper examines the closed-end fund puzzle in the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Closed-end funds are found to be trading at a discount in this market as well but the size of the discount on Turkish closed-end funds is much larger. Findings of this paper provide partial support for the investor sentiment hypothesis. Contrary to the findings for mature exchanges, investor sentiment does not seem to have a significant effect on the largest ten percent of stocks in this market. These stocks could be safe bets for investors who do not want to be affected from the sentiment of local investors.