COVID-19 pandemic and stock market reaction: empirical insights from 15 Asian countries

Since 2020, the world has been passing through a difficult time due to the outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic. This novel public health emergency has created both demand- and supply-side shocks affecting both real and financial sectors of economies globally. One of the noteworthy immediate consequences of it was sudden nosedive of stock markets across countries in the globe. In this pre-text, this study examined the stock market behaviour in 15 selected Asian markets amid the pandemic. The results infer about the surge in market return volatilities amid the rapid spread of the coronavirus which was primarily triggered through the impaired investors' sentiments due to the announcement effects. During this period, the stock market performances in selected Asian countries have been observed to be influenced by the reporting of the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and death cases, stock index returns, market volatility, oil prices, inflation rate, and interest rates.