By Anjali Taide Pillai’s Institute of Management Studies and Research Panvel

Corporate Social Responsibility CSR Ratings (Karmayog) CSR and Stock Returns

To find out the impact of CSR ratings on the stock market performance of the companies stock. The study aims to provide a comparative analysis of the ten companies selected randomly to represent different sectors. To present different parameters on basis of which in general CSR rating is done. The study will investigate the benefit of embedding CSR into investment decisions.

Ten companies are selected randomly from the 500 companies rated by Karmayog for their CSR initiatives. Ratings of these companies for the three years ( ) are studied. To study the stock market performance of these companies, the statistical summary comprising of the mean values, median and standard deviation of the month end closing prices of the companies stocks is been taken.

The companies whose CSR rating have fallen or increased in the meanwhile have shown an opposite trend of the stock returns or there is no correlation at all. CSR measures could be increased but they obviously do not lead to any improvement in financial performance.

The disclosure of CSR is not easily measurable by the socially responsible stakeholders as there is a lack of general accepted principles and most firms use CSR disclosure as an additional instrument of advertising, avoiding relevant information. This limitation should be overcome with ideal CSR parameters and ratings.