Disclosing the Pandemic Effect on Different Industries by the Stock Market Value Variations

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the global economy. Each country, to one degree or another, has felt the presence of the virus in all spheres of life. In turn, different countries reacted differently to the outbreak of the virus and implemented different restrictive policy measures in order to contain it. This paper includes a comparative analysis of the impact of COVID-19 by considering different countries and outlining the role of restrictive measures. It provides a panel regression analysis in order to identify the effects of different covid-19 related metrics on stock market returns of the companies in different industries. The results show the dependency between metrics such as severeness of restrictive policies, number of cases, number of vaccinations and the stock returns. What is more, it provides event study analysis in order to outline the effects of such COVID-19 related events as introduction of lockdown measures and massive national vaccination program launches. The results show the negative effects of lockdown announcements on the market returns and volatility and the insignificant non-negative effect of vaccination on the stock markets but with low levels of volatility. This research contributes to the study of the COVID-19 impact on different countries and presents helpful insights for the investors all over the world.