Impact of Pre, During and Post COVID-19 on Stock Returns Empirical Evidence from Selected SAARC Countries

Abstract

The COVID period was declared the worst phase for all the nations in the world, and it influenced human health as well as the entire financial system of the countries. Coronavirus has created uncertainty in the global market, education systems, businesses and financial market. For the first in history, the stock market of SAARC countries was drastically impacted for the most extended period due to the coronavirus. Among eight countries, the economy of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka was incredibly hit because of the larger population and the inability to implement proper lockdown among these nations. This study analyses the pre-during-post effect of COVID-19 on selected SAARC countries of stock. The main objective of this research is to know how COVID-19 influences these stock indices in the three mentioned periods. For this study, secondary data was collected from the www.investing.com website for BSX, PSX, CSX and DSX indices. This research is mainly based on the daily closing price of indices. To find the returns of these four indices, the data were treated in Microsoft Excel. In addition, descriptive statistics and multiple mean comparison tests were done to analyse the different results. According to the result of descriptive statistics concerning the market and COVID-wise, returns of Bombay, Colombo, and the Pakistan stock exchange were positive over the period. According to the result of Multiple Mean comparisons in terms of COVID-wise, among the four stock indices, Bombay and Pakistan stock returns are positive, and market-wise, no statistical difference occurs in the average return value of pre-COVID, during-COVID, and post-COVID.