Textbook Problem

Assume that you conduct business in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. You consider expanding your business overseas. You want to estimate the annual cost of equity in these countries in case you decide to obtain equity funding there. Go to finance.yahoo.com. Under Markets, click on World Indices. Click on Merval Index (which represents the Argentina stock market index). Click on " $1{\text{y}}^n$ just above the chart provided. Then click on "Historical Data." Obtain the stock market index value eight years ago, seven years ago, ...., one year ago, and as of today. Enter the data into a spreadsheet. Use the mean annual return (percentage change in value) over the last eight years as a rough estimate of your cost of equity in each of these countries.