Developing Country Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online) Vol.5, No.9, 2015 124 Investment Behavior and Stock Preference of an Individual Investor: Evidence from Karachi Stock Exchange Muhammad Waseem Ur Rehman 1 Kashif Arif 2 * 1.MS-Finance Scholar, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi 2.Faculty of Business Administration, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi *Corresponding Author: Email: kashifspectrum@gmail.com Abstract The purpose of the research is to study the individual investor’s behavior in Karachi Stock Exchange. In this study data was collected from individual clients at Karachi Stock Exchange. Type of the study is descriptive and deductive approach was used. The data was collected from 389 respondents at Karachi Stock Exchange with the help of designed questionnaire. The individual behavior is tested with the help of regression analysis. There are three regression models developed to study the relationship and impact of Independent variables (Accounting information & financial literacy, overconfidence, irrationality and biasness in decision making) on three different dependent variables (Preference of capital gain, preference of dividend and gambling). Results explain no relationship toward preference of capital gain but the significant relationships found toward preference of dividend and gambling. So it can be easily concluded that the investors at Karachi Stock Exchange do not prefer capital gain but they want better payout and speculation in the market. There were also studied that the accounting information & financial literacy increase the behavior toward preference of dividend and decrease toward gambling. There have been the evidences found that the investors at Karachi Stock Exchange have irrational behavior and this behavior influences the preference of dividend and gambling. Keywords:Investment behavior, Capital gain, Dividend, Gambling, Financial Literacy, Overconfidence, Irrationality and Biasness in Decision Making. 1. Introduction This research is a contribution in the field of behavioral finance. Before starting further chapters first of all we must know what the behavioral finance is. According to Baker and Nofsinger (2010), “Behavioral finance is a relatively new but quickly expanding field that seeks to provide explanations for people’s economic decisions by combining behavioral and cognitive psychological theory with conventional economics and finance.” There are thousands of individual investors at Karachi Stock Exchange. This study is on these house hold investors and their investment behavior. In this work the behavior of individual investors is studied on different preferences of investment methods. This study is based on regression analysis, with the help of regression models the impact of behavior has been checked on stock preference. This concept is gathered from past studies on same topic in which different behavior factors were explored. In this study four factors are included those may impact on stock preference of individuals at Karachi Stock Exchange. These factors include accounting information & financial literacy, overconfidence while making transactions, irrationality in investment behavior and biasness in decision making. There are also three different investment criteria are included in study those are preference of capital gain, preference of dividend and gambling. In this study the accounting information refers to the investor’s behavior which indicates that do investors use annual or quarter reports in their investment decisions and financial literacy refers to the problem that do investors have skills and knowledge to understand financial activities and companies disclosers. In this study the overconfidence factor is also included which refers to the concept that do investors use market announcements in decision making or analyze the market condition before making investment. There may be possible that the investors purchase stock according to someone’s recommendation or may be prefer a sector according to his willingness, to check this factor irrationality and biasness factors are included in study. There are also three other factors included in the study which explain the preference of stock. These factors include preference of capital gain which refers to the long-term investment with increase in price point of view. Second the preference of dividend is included,that is an important reason for investment at stock markets. That describes the investors invest in shares for seeking better payout. The house hold investorsgenerally want a quick profit from stock markets to test this variable the gambling factor is included. 1.1. Problem Statement and Research Question This work is done to study the investment behavior and stock preference according that behavior of individual investors. Following research questions have been answered in this paper: • What is the investment behavior of individual house-hold investor in Karachi Stock Exchange? • What are the factors influencing investment decisions of individuals in Karachi Stock Exchange? • Which type of stock they prefer to buy according to their behavior and for what purpose? CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE): E-Journals