The Impact of Dividend Decision on Market Value of Firms Listed on Damascus Stock Exchange

This study aims at determine the effect of dividend decision (independent variable) on the market value of listed companies in Damascus Security Exchange (dependent variable) during the period (2014-2018). To achieve this objective, the researchers compared the average of change in market value before and after the date of general assembly with the average of change in market value of the market index during the same period. The researchers used a hypothetical-deductive approach to formulate the hypotheses; and the Wilcoxon test (at 5% significance level). The study concluded that there is a significant negative effect of cash dividend decision on the market value. The distribution of bonus shares has a significant positive effect on market value. Finally, there is no significant effect of the non-dividend decision on the market value compared to the market index.