Covid-19-A Baleful Aftermath for the Stocks of Indian Pharmaceutical Companies

Abstract

Covid-19 catastrophe has not spared any market across the world due to widespread disruptions in its supply chain operations. In today's world, however, stock markets serve as a catalyst for a country's economic and financial development. But, with the development of Covid-19 infection and widespread lockdown in the majority of countries, its stock market has plummeted even further into the depths. Therefore, to determine whether the Covid-19 outbreak has impacted the expected return of Nifty Pharma and stock return of 3 leading pharmaceutical companies Cipla, Dr. Reddy's, and Sun Pharma in the before-Covid-19 period (1 Jan 2019 to 20 Mar 2020) and the after-Covid-19 period (23 Mar 2020 to 20 Mar 2021) this study is being carried out. The study aims to uncertain whether there exists a meaningful link between the S&P CNX Nifty index's forecasted market return and the expected security return of Nifty Pharma before and after Covid-19. To evaluate the relevant hypotheses, descriptive statistics event study technique, non-parametric testing, particularly the Wilcoxon Signed test, and regression analysis were used. It was discovered that the expected returns of Nifty Pharma and the expected security returns of Cipla, Dr. Reddy's, and Sun Pharma did not vary significantly before and throughout the Covid-19 epidemic period. However, for both before and throughout the Covid-19 era, there was a link between the predicted market return of the S&P CNX Nifty index and the security return of Nifty Pharma, implying that the benchmark index S&P CNX Nifty was influenced by Nifty Pharma's performance.