www.sciedu.ca/rwe Research in World Economy Vol. 5, No. 1; 2014 An Analysis of the Relationship between Risk and Expected Return in the BRVM Stock Exchange: Test of the CAPM Kolani Pamane1 & Anani Ekoue Vikpossi2 1 School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China 2 Swakop Uranium (Propriety) Ltd, Olympia Windhoek, Namibia Correspondence: Kolani Pamane, School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China. E-mail:
[email protected] Received: October 22, 2010 Accepted: November 10, 2010 Online Published: March 1, 2014 doi:10.5430/rwe.v5n1p13 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/rwe.v5n1p13 Abstract One of the most important concepts in investment theory is the relationship between risk and return. This relationship drives the theoretical foundation of many investment models such as the well known Capital Asset Pricing Model which predicts that the expected return on an asset above the risk-free rate is linearly related to the non-diversifiable risk measured by its beta. This study examines the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and test it validity for the WAEMU space stock market called BRVM (BOURSE REGIONALE DES VALEURS MOBILIERES) using monthly stock returns from 17 companies listed on the stock exchange for the period of January 2000 to December 2008. Combining Black, Jensen and Scholes with Fama and Macbeth methods of testing the CAPM, the whole period was divided into four sub-periods and stock’s betas used instead of portfolio’s betas due to the small size of the sample. The CAPM’s prediction for the intercept is that it should equal zero and the slope should equal the excess returns on the market portfolio.