Impact of COVID-19 on Global Financial Stock Markets

Abstract

The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of COVID-19 on global financial stock markets. The main objectives are to examine the impact of COVID-19 on global stock market indices, along with the impact oil price change on the global stock market indices, and the impact of exchange rate changes on global stock market indices. This research specifies a model where stock market indices are expressed as a function of exchange rates, oil price shocks, and COVID-19 cases; and was tested using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL). The daily closing price of two major global stock indices, exchange rates, oil price, and COVID-19 patients’ rate are obtained from January 2017 until March 2021. Findings reveal that the negative impact of pandemic on global stock markets has shown a significant effect two days after increments in the number of COVID-19 cases. Our findings contribute to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic research by empirically demonstrating that the pandemic has a restrictive effect on stock market performance.