Value Relevance of Other Comprehensive Income

The introduction of the Statement of Comprehensive Income is intended to enhance the informativeness of financial statements. Income measured on a comprehensive approach indicates a firm¿s performance better than other summary income measures because it includes all changes in the net assets of a firm during a period from operating and non-operating sources. Financial information is considered useful or value relevant to investors if it is associated with market values such as share prices and returns. Changes in share prices around the time of financial information disclosure, indicates that the information is relevant and useful for investors¿ decision making. However value relevance studies have thus far provided mixed evidence. Studies also found that fair value reporting has a significant impact on the value relevance of other comprehensive income. Additionally, most studies on value relevance of other comprehensive income focused on developed countries where the capital market is more efficient. In these settings due to the existence of active market, fair valuation of assets may not pose a major problem.