IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijfss/v12y2024i3p70-d1438560.html

China’s Stock Market under COVID-19: From the Perspective of Behavioral Finance

Author

Listed:
  • Kaizheng Li

    (School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China)

  • Xiaowen Jiang

    (School of Economics and Management, North China University of Technology, Beijing 100144, China)

Abstract

As a colossal developing economy, irrational, and inefficient trades broadly exist in China’s stock market and are intensified by the once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic. This atypical but prominent event enhances systemic risk and requires a more effective analysis tool that adapts to the investors’ sentiment and behavior. Based on the behavioral asset pricing model, this paper verifies the existence of noise traders in China’s stock market, measures the intensity of the noise with the NTR indicator, and examines the market noise with IANM. Furthermore, the mechanism of how COVID-19 influences the market noise through investors’ behaviors is analyzed with the event study method. The findings show that, based on 92 Chinese companies, the market noise significantly exists, and the noise is associated with psychological biases including over-confidence, herding effects and regret aversion. These biases are affected to varying degrees by COVID-19-related events, leading to notable implications for market stability and investor behavior during crises. Our study provides critical insights for policymakers and investors on managing market risks and understanding behavioral impacts during unprecedented events.

Suggested Citation

  • Kaizheng Li & Xiaowen Jiang, 2024. "China’s Stock Market under COVID-19: From the Perspective of Behavioral Finance," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:12:y:2024:i:3:p:70-:d:1438560
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/12/3/70/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/12/3/70/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chang, Eric C. & Cheng, Joseph W. & Khorana, Ajay, 2000. "An examination of herd behavior in equity markets: An international perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 1651-1679, October.
    2. Guosong Wu & Boxian Yang & Ningru Zhao, 2020. "Herding Behavior in Chinese Stock Markets during COVID-19," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(15), pages 3578-3587, December.
    3. Espinosa-Méndez, Christian & Arias, Jose, 2021. "COVID-19 effect on herding behaviour in European capital markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    4. Wang, Zhixuan & Dong, Yanli & Liu, Ailan, 2022. "How does China's stock market react to supply chain disruptions from COVID-19?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Verma, Rahul & Soydemir, Gökçe, 2009. "The impact of individual and institutional investor sentiment on the market price of risk," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 1129-1145, August.
    6. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:1839-1885 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Apergis, Nicholas, 2022. "Overconfidence and US stock market returns," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    8. Nicholas Barberis & Ming Huang & Tano Santos, 2001. "Prospect Theory and Asset Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 1-53.
    9. Abel, Andrew B., 2002. "An exploration of the effects of pessimism and doubt on asset returns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(7-8), pages 1075-1092, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alexakis, Christos & Chantziaras, Antonios & Economou, Fotini & Eleftheriou, Konstantinos & Grose, Christos, 2023. "Animal Behavior in Capital markets: Herding formation dynamics, trading volume, and the role of COVID-19 pandemic," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Assoe, Kodjovi & Mbengue, Mohamed Lamine & Sène, Babacar & Sy, Oumar, 2025. "Herding behavior in African stock markets: A state-space assessment during times of crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Nguyen, Huu Manh & Bakry, Walid & Vuong, Thi Huong Giang, 2023. "COVID-19 pandemic and herd behavior: Evidence from a frontier market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    4. P. K. Mishra & S. K. Mishra, 2023. "Do Banking and Financial Services Sectors Show Herding Behaviour in Indian Stock Market Amid COVID-19 Pandemic? Insights from Quantile Regression Approach," Millennial Asia, , vol. 14(1), pages 54-84, March.
    5. Xing, Shuo & Cheng, Tingting & Sun, Shuanglin, 2024. "Do investors herd under global crises? A comparative study between Chinese and the United States stock markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    6. Syed Faisal Hasssan Bukhari & Waqar Yasir & Christian Espinosa Méndez & Zia Mustafa, 2023. "Sectoral Comparison of Herding During Global Financial Crisis and Covid-19: Comparative Analysis of Shariah Compliant and Conventional Stocks," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 5(3), pages 202-210.
    7. Giordani, Paolo & Soderlind, Paul, 2006. "Is there evidence of pessimism and doubt in subjective distributions? Implications for the equity premium puzzle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1027-1043, June.
    8. Bharti & Ashish Kumar, 2022. "Exploring Herding Behaviour in Indian Equity Market during COVID-19 Pandemic: Impact of Volatility and Government Response," Millennial Asia, , vol. 13(3), pages 513-531, December.
    9. Daniel, Kent & Hirshleifer, David & Teoh, Siew Hong, 2002. "Investor psychology in capital markets: evidence and policy implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 139-209, January.
    10. Rahman, Oriana & Semenov, Andrei, 2025. "Subjective probabilities under behavioral heuristics," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    11. Giordani, Paolo & Söderlind, Paul, 2002. "Is there Evidence of Pessimism and Doubt in Subjective Distributions? A Comment on Abel," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 519, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 01 Oct 2003.
    12. Bellelah, M.A. & Bellelah, M.O. & Ben Ameur, H. & Ben Hafsia, R., 2017. "Does the equity premium puzzle persist during financial crisis? The case of the French equity market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(PB), pages 851-866.
    13. Valeri Zakamouline & Steen Koekebakker, 2009. "A Generalisation of the Mean†Variance Analysis," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 15(5), pages 934-970, November.
    14. Vadym Lepetyuk & Christian A. Stoltenberg, 2012. "Reconciling consumption inequality with income inequality," Working Papers. Serie AD 2012-19, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    15. Mamidala, Vasanthi & Kumari, Pooja, 2023. "Investigating herding severity in different NFT categories," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    16. Xing, Shuo & Cheng, Tingting & Qiu, Liping & Li, Xiaoyang, 2025. "The evolution of herding behavior in stock markets: Evidence from a smooth time-varying analysis," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    17. Blasco, Natividad & Casas, Luis & Ferreruela, Sandra, 2024. "Does war spread the herding effect in stock markets? Evidence from emerging and developed markets during the Russia-Ukraine war," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    18. Bharti & Nupur Soti & Ashish Kumar, 2025. "Thematic Review and Discussion of Research on Herd Behavior in Capital Markets: Highlighting the Gaps and Proposing Future Research Avenues," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(1), pages 21582440251, February.
    19. Youssef, Mouna & Waked, Sami Sobhi, 2022. "Herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market during COVID-19 pandemic: The role of media coverage," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    20. Oumayma GHARBI & Yousra TRICHILI & Mouna BOUJELBENE ABBES, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationship between uncertainty factors, investor’s behavioral biases and the stock market reaction of US Fintech companies," Journal of Academic Finance, RED research unit, university of Gabes, Tunisia, vol. 13(1), pages 101-122, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:12:y:2024:i:3:p:70-:d:1438560. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.