Volatility Spillovers and Correlations between Oil Prices and Stock Sectors in Turkey: Implications on Portfolio Hedging and Diversification Opportunities

This study investigates volatility spillover effects as well as hedging and diversification opportunities between sectoral stock returns and world crude oil prices in Turkey using the weekly closing prices of the BIST 100 and twenty-three sectoral stock indices for the period 2002-2018. DCC modelling is employed to investigate volatility spillovers between sectoral stock returns and oil prices. Findings reveal significant volatility spillovers from the oil market to the BIST 100 and twelve stock sectors. Furthermore, optimal hedge ratios, optimal portfolio weights, hedging effectiveness, diversification effectiveness and risk-adjusted returns of oil-stock portfolios are computed and compared. The results indicate that diversification is a more effective strategy than hedging in terms of risk (variance) reductions and risk-adjusted returns in the Turkish stock market.