A study of investment opportunities and investors' sentiments during COVID-19 pandemic

The spread of COVID-19 is a black swan event. It has created and is still creating catastrophic damage to the global economy. The novel coronavirus, which was first reported in Wuhan China in December 2019, has infected millions of people, killed thousands, and created high volatility in the stock market. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the stock market over a period of March 24-April 24, 2020, and to identify the investment opportunities during the pandemic era. The results indicated that there were sectors that gained during the pandemic such as healthcare, FMCG, telecom, etc. From an investment perspective, long-term investment in companies with high market capitalisation could be a good alternative as they may withstand in crisis and bounce back quickly. This research also analysed the investors' opinion towards the stock market through sentiment analysis using QSR NVivo. The results indicated that despite fear and negativity due to lockdown and shut down of all economic and commercial activities the positive sentiments stood out. This shows that people are hopeful, and this may have a positive impact on the stock market.