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The Australian Stock Market’s Reaction to the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Black Summer Bushfires: A Sectoral Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Samet Gunay

    (College of Business Administration, American University of the Middle East, Egaila 15453, Kuwait)

  • Walid Bakry

    (School of Business, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia)

  • Somar Al-Mohamad

    (College of Business Administration, American University of the Middle East, Egaila 15453, Kuwait)

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on various sectors of the Australian stock market. Market capitalization and equally weighted indices were formed for eleven Australian sectors to examine the influence of the pandemic on them. First, we examined the financial contagion between the Chinese stock market and Australian sector indices through the dynamic conditional correlation fractionally integrated generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (DCC-FIGARCH) model. We found high time-varying correlations between the Chinese stock market and most of the Australian sector indices, with the financial, health care, information technology, and utility sectors displaying a decrease in co-movements during the pandemic. The Modified Iterative Cumulative Sum of Squares (MICSS) analysis results indicated the presence of structural breaks in the volatilities of most of the sector indices around the end of February 2020, but consumer staples, industry, information technology and real estate indices did not display any break. Markov regime-switching regression analysis depicted that the pandemic has mainly affected three sectors: consumer staples, industry, and real estate. When we considered the firm size, we found that smaller companies in the energy sector exhibited gradual deterioration, whereas small firms in the consumer staples sector experienced the largest positive impact from the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Samet Gunay & Walid Bakry & Somar Al-Mohamad, 2021. "The Australian Stock Market’s Reaction to the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Black Summer Bushfires: A Sectoral Analysis," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-19, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:14:y:2021:i:4:p:175-:d:534154
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    2. Larissa Batrancea, 2021. "The Nexus between Financial Performance and Equilibrium: Empirical Evidence on Publicly Traded Companies from the Global Financial Crisis Up to the COVID-19 Pandemic," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-12, May.
    3. Lin, Weinan & Ouyang, Ruolan & Zhang, Xuan & Zhuang, Chengkai, 2023. "Network analysis of international financial markets contagion based on volatility indexes," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. Bakry, Walid & Kavalmthara, Peter John & Saverimuttu, Vivienne & Liu, Yiyang & Cyril, Sajan, 2022. "Response of stock market volatility to COVID-19 announcements and stringency measures: A comparison of developed and emerging markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    5. Bedford, Anna & Bugeja, Martin & Ghannam, Samir & Jeganathan, Davina & Ma, Nelson, 2023. "Were CEO pay cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic merely symbolic? Shareholders' reaction and outrage," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Beata Bieszk-Stolorz & Iwona Markowicz, 2021. "Decline in Share Prices of Energy and Fuel Companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange as a Reaction to the COVID-19 Pandemic," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-17, August.
    7. Samet Gunay & Gokberk Can, 2022. "The source of financial contagion and spillovers: An evaluation of the covid-19 pandemic and the global financial crisis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-20, January.

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