Mimicking behaviour in bulk and block trading of institutional investors in the stock market

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the mimicking behaviour of institutional investors in the stock market. Design/methodology/approach The study focusses on examining the herding behaviour among institutional investors in the stock market by considering the bulk and block trade on the constituent NIFTY 50 index during the period 2005–2015 using Lakonishok–Schleifer–Vishny (1992) model. The study also aims to find out whether their herding behaviour is intentional or unintentional in nature. Findings The findings of the study showed no sign of herding behaviour in the market; out of 50 constituent stocks of NIFTY 50, there was significant herding in 15 stocks, with buy herding in 11 stocks and sell herding in four stocks, and remaining 35 stocks were totally free from herding behaviour. In addition, the results proved that the herding behaviour observed on the stocks is of unintentional in nature. Research limitations/implications Present study is limited to the use of constituent stocks of the Benchmarking Index NIFTY 50. Originality/value This study is the first attempt to investigate the herding behaviour of institutional investors in the market using bulk and block trade and also to explore their intent in herding behaviour.