ABSTRACT

The study focused on the appraisal of the effect offinancial reporting on stock

market price of sterling Bank Nig. Plc. It has as its specific objectives to examine;

the relationship between earning per share and stock market price; the

relationship between dividend per share and stock market price; the relationship

between profit after tax and stock market price. The research adopted the ex post

facto research design, using descriptive and trend from cross sectional and

longitudinal designs. The data was sourced through the secondary source of data

on the variables was obtained through afiveyearsfinancial report/statement that

is from 2012 to 2016financial year. The result of the study revealed that Earnings

per share (EPS) has a sign jflcant and positive relationship with share market

price (SMP); dividend per share has a positive and sign ?/Icant relationship with

share market price, profit after tax is positively and sign flcantly related to share

market price with an R2of 0.749, implies that about 74.9% of the change or

variation in share market price can be explained by profit after tax (PAT). Based

on the findings of the study, the researcher therefore recommends that there is

need for firms to improve on the quality of earnings reported, since it had a

stronger ability to explaining share prices offirm and that listed banks on the

Nigerian Stock Exchange, should display their earnings per share conspicuously

in their presentation to investors and analysts and also include their book value

per share.