Do Macroeconomic Variables Impact the Indian Stock Market?

This paper is intended to study the impact of various macroeconomic variables on Indian stock market. Based on the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) propounded by Ross in 1976 and various other studies, a number of macroeconomic variables including, inflation, industrial production, exchange rate, money supply, interest rate, and oil price have been identified to have a significant impact on the stock market. We have applied the multivariate extension of the classical linear regression model computed on Ordinary Least Squares method and Granger Causality test to re-establish the relationship between macroeconomic variables and stock returns over a period of 10 years from 2005 to 2015 using monthly observations. The results of this study show that only exchange rate has a significant negative impact on stock returns. The other macroeconomic variables are not significantly affecting stock returns; however, their impact is in accordance with the economic theory. The Granger Causality test reveals absence of any causal relationship between stock returns and macroeconomic variables, except in case of oil prices, where we find a unidirectional causal relationship running from stock returns to oil prices. However, the Granger Causality results should not be taken in the conventional meaning of causality, but results merely identifying precedence.