Comparative analysis of efficiency in the economic sectors of Lima stock exchange

Abstract

Lima Stock Exchange is considered one of the smallest capital markets in Latin America, despite its favorable growth in the last five years. The performance of listed companies in the stock market may be compromised with national macroeconomic gaps and impact on the development of the economic sector, which is why this study aimed to estimate the financial efficiency of companies listed on the Lima Stock Exchange to know their performance by economic sector during the period 2015-2020. The non-parametric technique of Data Envelopment Analysis was used in a set of 76 companies belonging to the Agrarian, Industrial, Public Services, and Mining sectors; finally, the change in performance was estimated through the Malmquist Productivity Index. The results indicated that 2016 was the most efficient year for companies and 2018 the least efficient year. The most efficient sector was Mining with an efficiency of 0.56, Agrarian sector was the least efficient and with the highest volatility. Likewise, productivity results concluded that technological change does not contribute to productivity, while efficiency change contributed positively to all sectors. In addition, a trend of annual growth and stability of the Mining sector was evidenced, which, in the face of the economic crisis, only had a slight drop of -1.7% in its productivity, unlike the other sectors that were notably affected. Results of this study reflected that the macroeconomic indicators of the country often don't affect the performance of the economic sector, to know the performance of the companies it is necessary to analyze the characteristic factors of each sector. It is recommended to use the results of this study as a complementary instrument for making investment decisions in Lima Stock Exchange-listed companies.