An Empirical Analysis of Industry Momentum in Chinese Stock Markets

This paper documents significant abnormal profits for industry momentum strategies in Chinese stock markets. Industry momentum remains profitable even after controlling for lead-lag effect, the January effect, and individual stock momentum. Moreover, momentum profits generated by industry-specific components are much larger than those generated by common-factor components of the Fama-French three-factor model and a delayed-reaction three-factor model. The findings provide new evidence that momentum profits are due to idiosyncratic risk and investors' underreaction to industry-specific information. The implication is that behavioral biases, market manipulation, and institutional trading are pivotal in explaining why stock prices do not incorporate industry-specific news instantaneously.