Islamic equity markets versus their conventional counterparts in the COVID-19 age: Reaction, resilience, and recovery

We undertake a comparative examination of Islamic equity markets and their conventional counterparts during the COVID-19 pandemic via maximum drawdown-based risk measures. The two-digit drawdown throughout the underlying sectors signifies the indiscriminate impact of the pandemic. It appears that most of the Islamic sectors experience relatively lower drawdown as well as faster recovery than their non-Islamic counterparts. During the period, Islamic markets outperformed their counterparts. Islamic markets also hold healthier Calmar ratios while the emerging markets retain relatively higher metrics.