The Contribution of African Capital Markets in the Diversification of European Investment Portfolios

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the contribution of the African capital markets in the diversification of European investment portfolios. The study used the methodology based on the application of optimization models like Mean Variance (MV), Resample Michaud (RM), SemiVariance (SV), Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) and Filtered Historical Simulation (FHS). In-Sample and Out-of-Sample approaches were used to analyze the data. The study results suggested the existence of a strong correlation between some African capital markets and European capital markets, that is, they tend to move in the same direction. The most important being the diversification of global portfolio with assets of African capital markets generate benefits for both types of investors; that is, it provides benefits in the return and reduce investment risk. Still, the study result suggested that the foreign investors should look for an African capital markets with a chance to maximize their wealth and diversify the investment risk in their portfolios. In the same order, the study result went further to elaborate contribute to on the advantage of the international diversification and furthermore contribute to the literature through application of the Filtered Historical Simulation (FHS) method in the optimization portfolio. This methodology, In addition to producing good results, is more restrained in the composition of investment portfolios than the other methods.