This paper investigates the interaction between stock index returns and the real output growth for five countries. This study focuses on the second moment relationship using various forms of the bivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic models (BGARCH). This study shows that interactivity between stock returns and growth rates are robust at the second order. The results imply that high volatility in the stock market is likely to be followed by increased volatility in the output sector and periods of high volatility in real output is likely to be followed by increased volatility in the stock market.

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The inter-sector study shows index performance on a sector-by-sector basis was heavily impacted by the country which closed just prior to its own market's open as we expect from the broad index. This study also found the influence of a country's lagged price movements on its own market varied from one country to another and from sector-to-sector. The investigation into industry specific indexes by applying the Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline (MARS) model allowed us to untangle the data and capture the asymmetric dynamics in international financial markets. The sector specific study results revealed the strong linkages when markets were excessively volatile and also identified the difference between the impact of positive and negative extreme price movements.