Does COVID-19 Outbreak and Russian Invasion of Ukraine Generate Abnormal Returns

The present study aims to examine the impact of two economic shocks i.e., COVID-19 and Ukraine-Russia war in the Indian equity market using 3 broad market indices and 14 sectoral indices of National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). Four events concerned with COVID-19 i.e., WHO announcement of COVID-19 as global pandemic, first lockdown in India, start of the second wave of COVID-19, peak of second wave and one event of Ukraine-Russia war have been selected for the analysis. In this study, daily stock returns have been used to compile abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns and event study methodology has been applied. It has been found that the selected indices show high volatility during various events, however, failed to generate abnormal returns.