Market Closures and Cross-sectional Stock Returns

By analyzing not only an overnight return but also a midday-recess return, namely, a stock return during midday-recess, I analyze whether and why market closures affect cross-sectional stock returns. I find strong persistence in overnight and midday-recess returns, with both returns positively associated with each other. Moreover, these out-of-trading-hours returns are negatively associated with returns during trading hours. I analyze whether these associations are explained by a different investor clientele outside trading hours (the open of the trading session) compared to during trading hours (intraday and closing of the trading session). I find that institutional ownership increases more with returns during trading hours; the finding indicates that those returns are mainly determined by institutional investors, while midday-recess and overnight returns, that is, returns outside trading hours, are not. Overall, my results support the view that market closures do affect cross-sectional returns and the influence is attributable to differences in the investor clientele.