Impact of COVID-19on Stock Exchange Indices: A Comparative Study among Most affected Emerging Markets

Authors: Adeel Zafar, Raza Shah, Rooma Qadeer

Since the outspread of the pandemic, COVID-19is the most researched topic. The impact of various dimensions of this pandemic on the stock exchanges and their performance is still far from complete. Furthermore, knowledge about the effects of COVID-19 on emerging markets of different continents is still lacking. Therefore, this study is conducted to identify the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of stock markets of the emerging economies of the world. With this reference the stock markets of North and South Americas, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil are analyzed; these were the most affected emerging markets of America due to COVID-19. The independent variable is operationalized in terms of active cases, the number of deaths, and total vaccinated persons. Stock market indices, returns, volatility, and uncertainty are taken as performance measures. The result shows a significant effect of all the dimensions of COVID-19 on the stock market; however, the impact is different for each market, which is discussed in detail in the results section. This study will assist in assessing the trend of the stock market in any future pandemic or disaster and making profitable investments.