... The analysis relies on aggregate market indices and does not examine firm-level heterogeneity or directly measure behavioral channels such as investor sentiment or liquidity changes. Practical implications The findings highlight the importance of incorporating cultural and religious calendar events...

...Yousra Trichilli; Mouna Boujelbène Abbes; Afif Masmoudi Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the capability of the hidden Markov model using Googling investors’ sentiments to predict the dynamics of Islamic indexes’ returns in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) financial markets...