COVID-19 Shock and Sectorial Index Response in South Africa: A Cross-sector Analysis

The prime objective of this study was to examine the impact COVID-19 shock on sector returns South African Stock market. employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model estimated with a Pooled Mean Group estimator sample daily stock 10 Johannesburg Exchange (JSE) sectors. results indicate heterogeneous behaviour in return response shock. shows that Pandemic negatively impacted majority However, some sectors were positively affected by outbreak, while resilient pooled ARDL panel show negative relationship between and market short run. found an insignificant cases long also different factors is time-varying. imply short-lived, corrected investors should thus focus long-run returns. evidence significance diversification for