International Journal of Social Sciences and Management

Stock Selection and Market Timing Ability of Nepalese Mutual Funds

Dipesh Pote Shrestha — 2023-07-31

This study evaluates the performance of Nepalese mutual fund managers’ stock selection and market timing abilities. This study performed the investigation on the weekly data of 5 mutual funds from December 28, 2017 to March 2, 2023 spanning 270 weeks. To serve our objective, the stock selection skills of the fund managers were assessed using average return, Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, Information ratio and Jensen’s alpha. The study found strong evidence supporting risk management ability in all of the mutual fund schemes as demonstrated by beta coefficient below unity and significant stock selection ability in 2 out of the 5 mutual fund schemes. Furthermore, the positive values of alpha although not statistically significant indicates stock selection ability of the fund managers. On the other hand, Treynor and Mazuy’s Unconditional Market timing model was employed to test the market timing skill of fund managers. The test results did not indicate any significant positive market timing skills but one of the mutual fund schemes exhibited statistically significant negative market timing. Thus, the Nepalese fund managers aptly demonstrated stock selection ability but they did not demonstrate any positive market timing skills indicating that fund managers typically relied on stock selection to outperform the Benchmark Index rather than market timing skills.

Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 10, Issue-3: 47-54.

Perception of Students on Agriculture as an Occupation- A Reference to Pondicherry University Postgraduate Students

Amaran K — 2023-07-31

This research article investigates the perception of postgraduate students at Pondicherry University regarding agriculture as an occupation. The study examines the demographic characteristics of the participants and explores their perceptions of agriculture. The sample comprises 56.4% female and 43.6% male respondents aged 21 to 28. Most (93.6%) of the participants fall within the 21 to 25 age group. Regarding the family type, most respondents (75.6%) belong to nuclear families, while a minority (20.5%) reside in joint families. Regarding residence, 53.8% of the respondents live in urban areas, while slightly over one-third (46.2%) reside in rural areas. The academic backgrounds of the participants are diverse, with approximately one-third belonging to the social science stream (34.6%), management stream (33.3%), and life science stream (32.1%), respectively. The study reveals that 65.4% of the respondents have a medium level of perception towards agriculture, while 34.6% have a high level of perception towards agriculture as an occupation. The article further presents the results of statistical analyses, including an independent sample t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). These indicate no significant differences in perception of agriculture as an occupation across gender, nativity, course of study, and family type. These findings contribute to understanding postgraduate students’ perception of agriculture as a career option and provide insights for policymakers and educators in promoting agriculture as a viable and attractive occupation for future generations.

Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 10, Issue-3: 55-59.

Yield and Cost Benefit Assessment of Lentil (Lens culunaris) Differentiated by Scale, Method and Purpose of Production in Nepal

Binod Ghimire — 2023-07-31

Diverse production system and cultivation methods are followed for lentil crop in Nepal. This study was designed to analyze differentiated yield and cost benefit analysis of lentil by scale, method and purpose of production. Four major lentil producing districts in Nepal was purposively selected and followed multistage sampling. Face-to-face interview method was applied with randomly selected 473 respondents using pre-tested semi-structured interview schedule for primary data collection in 2022. Descriptive statistics, comparative yield analysis, benefit cost analysis methods were adopted and analyzed using MS-excel and STATA software. The average yield (kg/hac.) of lentil was 672.6 in the study area. Yield analysis resulted higher yield with the seed producer (739.1 kg/ha.) followed by improved seed user (706.3 kg/ha.), small scale farms (690.1 kg/ha.), commercial scale farms (658.0 kg./ha.), local seed user and grain producer (652.9 and 653.4 mt/ha.). Again, benefit cost ratio was higher among the seed producer (2.02) indicating lentil seed producing as a higher profitable enterprise followed by improved seed user (1.88), commercial farms (1.79), small scale farms (1.77) and grain producers (1.71). It can be concluded that lentil farming with a purpose of producing seed by the use of improved varietal seed in a commercial scale with good management practices is highly profitable.

Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 10, Issue-3: 60-65