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The COVID-19 outbreak and stock market reactions: Evidence from Australia

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  • Rahman, Md Lutfur
  • Amin, Abu
  • Al Mamun, Mohammed Abdullah

Abstract

We examine how the Australian stock market responded to the uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic and whether the stimulus package offered by the Government helped restore confidence in the market. This study finds a negative stock market reaction to the pandemic announcement, however, among two stimulus packages related announcements, the market reacted positively only to “JobKeeper” package. The cross-sectional results suggest that the smallest, least profitable and value portfolios suffered more during the pandemic. Finally, size and liquidity are found to be the significant drivers of abnormal returns. These results generally hold for a battery of robustness checks.

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  • Rahman, Md Lutfur & Amin, Abu & Al Mamun, Mohammed Abdullah, 2021. "The COVID-19 outbreak and stock market reactions: Evidence from Australia," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:38:y:2021:i:c:s1544612320316469
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2020.101832
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Wenwen & Cao, Shuo & Zhang, Xuan & Qu, Xuefeng, 2023. "COVID-19 and stock market performance: Evidence from the RCEP countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 717-735.
    2. ?ikolaos A. Kyriazis, 2021. "Impacts of Stock Indices, Oil, and Twitter Sentiment on Major Cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 First Wave," Bulletin of Applied Economics, Risk Market Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 133-146.
    3. Le, Quyen & Vafaei, Alireza & Ahmed, Kamran & Kutubi, Shawgat, 2022. "Independent directors' reputation incentives and firm performance – an Australian perspective," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Najam Iqbal & Muhammad Saqib Manzoor & Muhammad Ishaq Bhatti, 2021. "Asymmetry and Leverage with News Impact Curve Perspective in Australian Stock Returns’ Volatility during COVID-19," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-15, July.
    5. Pradip Debnath & Hari Mohan Srivastava, 2021. "Optimizing Stock Market Returns during Global Pandemic Using Regression in the Context of Indian Stock Market," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-10, August.
    6. Matsuki, Takashi & Pan, Lei, 2021. "How did Australian financial markets react to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout? Fresh evidence from quantile copula spectrum analysis," MPRA Paper 111136, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Kamal, Javed Bin & Wohar, Mark, 2023. "Heterogenous responses of stock markets to covid related news and sentiments: Evidence from the 1st year of pandemic," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 68-85.
    8. Zhang, Xu & Ding, Zhijing & Hang, Jianqin & He, Qizhi, 2022. "How do stock price indices absorb the COVID-19 pandemic shocks?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    9. Farooque, Omar Al & Baghdadi, Ghasan & Trinh, Hai Hong & Khandaker, Sarod, 2023. "Stock liquidity during COVID-19 crisis: A cross-country analysis of developed and emerging economies, and economic policy uncertainty," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    10. Dong, Zibing & Li, Yanshuang & Zhuang, Xintian & Wang, Jian, 2022. "Impacts of COVID-19 on global stock sectors: Evidence from time-varying connectedness and asymmetric nexus analysis," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Emrah Koçak & Tarik Dogru & Khurram Shehzad & Umit Bulut, 2023. "The economic implications of the COVID-19 outbreak on tourism industry: Empirical evidence from Turkey," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(3), pages 742-758, May.
    12. Scherf, Matthias & Matschke, Xenia & Rieger, Marc Oliver, 2022. "Stock market reactions to COVID-19 lockdown: A global analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    13. Jiongye Jin & Jianing Zhang, 2023. "The Stock Performance of Green Bond Issuers During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of China," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 30(1), pages 211-230, March.
    14. Pradip Debnath & Hari Mohan Srivastava, 2021. "Optimal Returns in Indian Stock Market during Global Pandemic: A Comparative Study," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-13, December.
    15. Richard C. K. Burdekin & Samuel Harrison, 2021. "Relative Stock Market Performance during the Coronavirus Pandemic: Virus vs. Policy Effects in 80 Countries," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, April.
    16. Wenmin Wu & Chien-Chiang Lee & Wenwu Xing & Shan-Ju Ho, 2021. "The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Chinese-listed tourism stocks," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, December.
    17. Chen, Meichen & Qin, Cong & Zhang, Xiaoyu, 2022. "Cryptocurrency price discrepancies under uncertainty: Evidence from COVID-19 and lockdown nexus," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    18. Muhammad Kashif & Fatima Sultana & Muhammad Atif & Muhammad Aslam & Ammara Sarwar & Umar Farooq Awan & Muhammad Wasif Hanif, 2023. "COVID-19 Attack on Stock Markets: Event Study and Panel Data Analysis of Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC)," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 5(1), pages 50-63.
    19. Burak Pirgaip, 2021. "Pan(dem)ic reactions in Turkish stock market: evidence from share repurchases," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(2), pages 381-402, June.
    20. Tian, Maoxi & Alshater, Muneer M. & Yoon, Seong-Min, 2022. "Dynamic risk spillovers from oil to stock markets: Fresh evidence from GARCH copula quantile regression-based CoVaR model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    21. Chebbi, Kaouther & Ammer, Mohammed Abdullah & Hameed, Affan, 2021. "The COVID-19 pandemic and stock liquidity: Evidence from S&P 500," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 134-142.
    22. Boubaker, Sabri & Goodell, John W. & Kumar, Satish & Sureka, Riya, 2023. "COVID-19 and finance scholarship: A systematic and bibliometric analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    23. Hamza Almustafa, 2022. "National Governance Quality, COVID-19, and Stock Index Returns: OECD Evidence," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Coronavirus; COVID-19; Australian stock market; Government stimulus package; JobKeeper package;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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