This study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the stock markets of sixteen countries. Pooled OLS regression, conventional t-test and Mann-Whitney test are used to estimate the results of the study. We construct a weekly panel data of COVID-19 new cases and stock returns. Pooled OLS estimation result shows that the growth rate of weekly new cases of COVID-19 negatively predicts the return in stock market. Next, the returns on leading stock indices of these countries during the COVID-19 outbreak period are compared with returns during the non-COVID period. We use a t-test and Mann-Whitney test to compare the returns. The results reveal that investors in these countries do not react to the media news of COVID-19 at the early stage of the pandemic. However, once the human-to-human transmissibility had been confirmed, all of the stock market indices negatively reacted to the news in the short- and long-event window. Interestingly, we noticed that the Shanghai Composite Index, which was severely affected during the short-event window, bounced back during the long-event window. This indicates that the Chinese government’s drastic measures to contain the spread of the pandemic regained the confidence of investors in the Shanghai Stock Market.

Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Research Methods and Materials
4. Results and Discussion
5. Conclusions
References

• Karamat KHAN(School of Finance, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law) Corresponding Author.
• Huawei ZHAO(Henan University, Kaifeng city, Henan Province)
• Han ZHANG(School of Finance, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)
• Huilin YANG(School of Finance, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)
• Muhammad Haroon SHAH(School of Finance, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)
• Atif JAHANGER(School of Economics, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)