Abstract
Stock market broadly
referred to as security exchange has gained so much interests from various
stakeholders around the world as they endow exceedingly to the growth of the
world economy. Nairobi
Securities Exchange, being an emerging stock market, this study therefore
considered dividend yield anomaly, measured by dividend per share and price to
earnings anomaly operationalized through earnings per share as the types of the
fundamental anomalies. When there is fundamental anomaly, firms tend to exhibit unhealthy
financial position which is financial distress, measured by Z-Score. The
main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between fundamental
anomalies and firms’ financial distress; evidence from Nairobi Securities
Exchange, Kenya. This study adopts descriptive research design and embraced
secondary data from 2007 to 2017 from a target population of 67 listed firms.
It was found that there existed a relationship between fundamental anomalies
and firms’ financial distress. The study recommends that the management should put in place the
right dividend policies, declaration or non-declaration of dividends in the
treatment of dividends. For policy makers and regulators, the recommendations
will assist in restoring law and order and this will enable all the
stakeholders to have confidence in Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Keywords: Securities Exchange, Financial Distress, Fundamental
Anomalies.