THE AUDIT OPINION IN THE ROLE OF STOCK PRICES FLUCTUATIONS ON THE MACEDONIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

Abstract

In the modern literature, the audit opinion is defined as a certificate that accompanies the financial statements of companies. The audit opinion is important because it provides an answer as to whether companies' financial statements are free from material misstatement. Although in the Republic of North Macedonia the research studies related to the influence of the audit opinions on the stock prices of the companies listed on the Macedonian Stock Exchange are almost non-existent, in the world numerous papers have researched the impact between these two variables. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of audit opinions contained in the audit reports on the stock prices of companies in the Republic of North Macedonia. The model also includes two control variables: the net profit and the size of the companies. The sample included in the research are companies listed on the Macedonian Stock Exchange. The results of this research show that the impact of the audit opinion on the stock price is not significant, i.e., that investors in the decision-making process do not take into account the audit opinion.