The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Stock Market: An Empirical Study in Saudi Arabia

The objective of the study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Saudi Arabia stock market. The study relied on the data of the daily closing stock market price index Tadawul All Share Index (TASI), and the number of daily cases infected with COVID-19 during the period from March 15, 2020, to August 10, 2020. The study employs the Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR) model, the Impulse Response Function (IRF) and Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (ARCH) models. The results of the correlation matrix and the Impulse Response Function (IRF) show that stock market returns responded negatively to the growth in COVID-19 infected cases during the pandemic. The results of ARCH model confirmed the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on KSA stock market returns. The results also showed that the negative market reaction was strong during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study concluded that stock market in KSA responded quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic; the response varies over time according to the stage of the pandemic. However, the Saudi government's response time and size of the stimulus package have played an important role in alleviating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Saudi Arabia Stock Market.