Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Greek Energy Firms: An Event Study Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock returns of 11 Greek energy listed companies. Using an event study approach covering a window of 10 days before and 10 days after the general lockdown (23/3/2020), we show that the pandemic influenced returns of the majority of the listed energy firms. However, diverging from the event day sees the negative effects dissipating.

Asymmetric Link Between COVID-19 and Fossil Energy Prices

“…Iyke (2020a), for instance, finds that the US oil and gas firms have heterogenous reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. Polemis & Soursou (2020) indicate that the pandemic influenced returns of the majority of Greek energy listed firms. Fu & Shen (2020) point out that COVID-19 has had a significant negative effect on the performance of energy companies.…”

Herding Behavior in Chinese Stock Markets during COVID-19

“…Dinh and Narayan (2020) explore the reaction of stock prices at different stages of COVID-19's evolution and argue that stock markets have over-reacted to any unexpected news and that they will correct themselves with more available information. Also, researchers investigate the influence of COVID-19 on energy markets and find increasing volatility in oil prices following the onset of COVID-19 and that the pandemic influences returns for the majority of the listed energy firms (Devpura and Narayan 2020;Huang and Zheng 2020;Polemis and Soursou 2020).…”

COVID-19, Short-selling Ban and Energy Stock Prices

“…Gil-Alana & Monge (2020) found the oil market became inefficient when incorporating COVID-19 crisis data. Polemis & Soursou (2020) examined the impact of the pandemic on Greek companies' returns, showing it affected returns of most firms negatively, yet with dissipating effect following the announcement of the national lockdown. Similarly, Albulescu (2020) assessed the impact of COVID-19 on oil prices and found only a marginal effect on crude oil after controlling for economic policy uncertainty and the U.S. market volatility.…”