Fundamental Anomalies and Firms Financial Distress; Evidence from Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya

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 nondeclaration 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.