How Covid19 affects the stock return of the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry: event study method

Abstract

The outbreak of Covid-19 had a negative impact on socio-economic activities and stock markets of many countries around the world. However, it could affect the pharmaceutical industry in a different way. The purpose of this article is to examine how the covid19 pandemic affects the share price of the pharmaceutical industry in Vietnam. Event study is the main methodology of this article. The three events selected for study include: (i) On January 23, 2020, the first two patients, Chinese nationality, were found infected with covid19;(ii) March 6, 2020: The 17th patient, an international student from the UK, started the wave of covid19 infection in the community in Vietnam;(iii) On March 30, 2020, Vietnam announced the nationwide outbreak of Covid-19 and implemented economic lockdown. The article found that the impact of the three events on pharmaceutical stock prices was sign inconsistency. Cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) is positive after the first and third event is declared but the CAR is negative after the second event is announced. Of the three events, the stock price response to the third was the slowest since CAR (0;7) started to be statistically significant while the other two events CAR (0;2) were statistically significant. The results from this study have added to further insights into the effects of disease on the response of pharmaceutical stock prices.