Impact of COVID-19 on Different Sectors of the Economy Using Event Study Method: An Indian Perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research examines the impact of the lockdown announcement imposed by the Indian government on the different leading sectors of the economy such as pharmaceuticals, FMCG, Financial services, banking, energy, etc. Event study method has been used to analyze the data. Lockdown announcement day has been considered as the event for our study. We have taken a 40-day event window, i.e., 20 days before and 20 days after the date of the announcement. Secondary data is used in the study and the same is collected from the NSE website. Using MS Excel, we have applied three methods for analysis—mean-adjusted, market-adjusted, and risk-adjusted abnormal return. Auto, Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, IT, Media, Metal, Pharma, Private bank, PSU Bank, Realty, Oil & Gas, and Energy are sectors of NSE that were taken for the study. Our results indicated that most of the sectors performed positively and gained abnormal returns during 21 days after the announcement. It showed that these sectors recovered their position after going down the market index. This shows that investors were confident that the impact was due to the abnormal condition of the market and not due to the fault or fundamental problems of these sectors. Based on the results, investors may decide to hold their position in the stock that has recovered during the period. Also, investors can diversify their portfolio in those sectors to which abnormal return was positive besides the COVID-19 impact. This is the first study to analyze the effects of the announcement of lockdown due to COVID-19 on the stock market performance of different sectors using the event study method in the context Indian stock market.