Eid Mawlid al-Nabi, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha; optimism and impact on analysts' recommendations: Evidence From MENA region

This study investigates holidays' effect in analyst recommendations in the MENA countries stock markets between 2004 and 2015. The findings show that on Pre-Holidays, analysts tend to issue pessimistic recommendations, and issue optimistic recommendations on Post-Holidays. Prior literature on day-of-the-week effect is endorse our results, which document an increase in stock prices during the week, and a decrease in stock prices over the weekend. We argue that analysts can benefit from the upward trend in stock prices during Post-Holidays by issuing optimistic recommendation. Analysts may as well benefit from the downward trend in stock prices by issuing pessimistic recommendations on Pre-Holidays.