Covid-19 pandemic and stock returns in India

This paper examines whether the Covid-19 pandemic has had a homogeneous or heterogeneous effect on stock returns in India. We consider panel data by using 1,318 companies that are listed on the National Stock Exchange of India. We find that the daily growth rate in Covid-19 cases and Covid-19 deaths are negatively associated with stock returns. Further, we observe that the average stock returns during Lockdown 2 are positive and highly significant, while the returns during Lockdowns 3 and 4 are negative. Moreover, our results show that the chemical, technology, and food and beverage industries earn higher returns. In contrast, the banking and finance, automotive, services, and cement and construction industries yield lower returns for the overall period. Interestingly, all industry groupings in this study earn a positive return during the lockdown period. In particular, the chemical, technology, automotive, metals and mining, and food and beverage industries provide higher returns during the lockdown period. Finally, this study supports the claim that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a heterogeneous effect in the Indian stock markets.