Environmental Disclosure Practices and Share Price Volatility in the Nigerian Stock Market

The growing awareness of the impact of corporate activities on the environment and seeming failure of the existing regulations to mandate the disclosure of such information impair investment decision and confidence of market participants. Many studies have been carried out to address environmental disclosure and the Nigerian stock market but few considered the effect of environmental disclosure on share price volatility This study investigated the combined effects of environmental disclosure on share price volatility of the Nigerian stock market. The study adopted ex post facto research design. The target population for the study comprised 48 companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, under the consumer goods and industrial goods sectors, as at December 31, 2016. A sample size of 17 companies was determined using Cochrans formula. The results revealed that environmental disclosure jointly had significant effect on Share Price Volatility (SPV), (Adjusted-R2 = 0.187, F (8, 253) = 8.86, pless than 0.05). The individual effect of the explanatory variable on the SPV showed that ENP had significant positive effect on SPV ( =.764, t (253) = 2.66. p less than.05) while FSZ had significant negative effect on SPV ( = -.339, t (253) = -4.07, p less than.05). The study concluded that environmental disclosure practices were important factors in determining the stability of share prices in the Nigerian stock market. The study recommended that financial reporting council of Nigeria and other regulatory agencies should establish and implement environmental disclosure standards to mandate consistent disclosure of environmental information.