This scholarly work is an effort to capture the effects of oil prices on the actual exchange rate between dollar and rupee. This is done with reference to the U.S. dollar as oil prices are marked in USD (U.S. Dollar) in the international market, and India is among the top five importers of oil. Using monthly data from January 2001 to May 2020. The study used the real GDP, money supply, short-term interest rate difference between two countries, and inflation apart from the crude oil prices per barrel as the factors that help define the exchange rate. The analysis, through cointegration and vector error correction method (VECM), suggests long and short-run causality amid prices of oil and the rate of exchange fluctuations. Oil prices are found to be negatively related to the exchange rate in the long term but positively related in the short term. The result of the Wald test also indicates the short-run causation from the short-term interest rate and the prices of crude oil towards the exchange rate. The present study shows that oil prices are evidence of the existence of short-term and long-term driving associations with short-term interest rates and exchange rates.

The research investigates the impact of the lockdown period caused by the COVID-19 to the stock market of India. The study examines the extent of the influence of the lockdown on the Indian stock market and whether the market reaction would be the same in pre- and post-lockdown period caused by COVID-19. Market Model Event study methodology is used. A sample of 31 companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) are selected at random for the purpose of the study. The sample period taken for the study is 35 days (24 February-17 April, 2020). An event window of 35 days was taken with 20 days prior to the event and 15 days during the event. The event (t1) being the official announcement of the lockdown. The results indicate that the market reacted positively with significantly positive Average Abnormal Returns during the present lockdown period, and investors anticipated the lockdown and reacted positively, whereas in the pre-lockdown period investors panicked and it was reflected in negative AAR. The study finds evidence of a positive AR around the present lockdown period and confirms that lockdown had a positive impact on the stock market performance of stocks till the situation improves in the Indian context.