Corona Pandemic and Stock Market Behaviour: Empirical Insights from Selected Asian Countries

On the onset of the year 2020, the unprecedented outbreak of novel coronavirus, initially as a human health epidemic and later as a global pandemic, has wobbled the economies of affected countries across the globe. The consequential unexpected occurrences of supply- and demand-side shocks forced the economies to trim down their growth prospects. The interplay of these shocks has generated spirals of downturns in all major economic sectors, including the financial sector in affected countries. Specifically, the stock markets immediately nosedived, following the outbreak of the global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Thus, we examine the behaviour of the selected Asian stock markets amid the huge uncertainties of the corona pandemic and find the occurrences of volatility clustering in these markets. Such volatility clustering primarily occurred, owing to the pessimistic and panic sentiments of investors, and the increase in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases, changes in oil prices, and exchange rates were found to be significant in channelizing the fears and uncertainties of coronavirus pandemic to cause unexpected nosedives in Asian stock markets.