Volatility and Liquidity Comparison of Indonesian and Singapore Stock Market in COVID-19 Mobility Restrictions Era

Abstract

The COVID-19 case found at the end of December 2019 became a pandemic in March 2020. The research aimed to see and understand the differences in the performance of the Indonesian and Singapore stock indices represented by the Indeks Harga Saham Indonesia (IHSG) and Straits Times Index (STI) before and after the implementation of community mobility restrictions (Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar (PSBB) in Indonesia and Circuit Breaker in Singapore). The stock index data were stock index prices at closing and stock trading volume. The stock index performance was measured by its volatility and liquidity. Meanwhile, data volatility with heteroscedasticity symptoms was measured using the GARCH (1,1) model. Meanwhile, the standard deviation was used to measure homoscedastic data. The results show differences in return volatility and stock index liquidity before and after restrictions on community mobility. The return volatility of the IHSG and STI is higher before the community mobility restrictions compared to the period after. IHSG experiences liquidity after PSBB I and before PSBB II. The conclusion that can be drawn from these results is that liquidity in Indonesia does not improve when PSBB I is implemented, but liquidity improves in PSBB II. Meanwhile, STI’s liquidity is higher in the period after the implementation of Circuit Breaker. These results indicate that implementing the Circuit Breaker helps to improve the stock index’s performance in Singapore because volatility decreases when the policy is implemented. The policy also reduced the liquidity of the Singapore stock index.