Study of the Effect on the Introduction of a Lockdown (COVID-19 Pandemic) on Abnormal Return Rate

Abstract

In general, everyone has an individual approach to investing their capital. In the case of the capital market, two extreme approaches can be observed, for some investors the key is the security of investments while for others it is maximization of profits. There are also many investors who follow their own beliefs when making decisions – the emotional factor. Such behavior is explained by a relatively new field, namely behavioral finance. Its inseparable elements are exchange rate fluctuations. The amplitude of occurring fluctuations increases in case of unexpected random events. One such event was COVID-19 and the announcements of lockdowns in individual countries. The following report investigated the impact of COVID-19 on the capital market, and more specifically, it has been tested in terms of generating abnormal rates of return. The hypothesis of the study was that an announcement of a lockdown resulting in an economic closure generates statistically significant abnormal rates of return in relation to national benchmarks. The study was conducted on the basis of daily closing rates for joint stock companies from six European countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Hungary. The data range covered the period from 1st January 2020 to 30th April 2020. The results of the event study proved that a few companies in the analysis showed sensitivity of their rates of return in relation to COVID-19.