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COVID-19 pandemic and connectedness across financial markets

Muhammad Abubakr Naeem (School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand and UCD College of Business, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland)
Saba Sehrish (School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand)
Mabel D. Costa (School of Accountancy, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand)

Pacific Accounting Review

ISSN: 0114-0582

Article publication date: 22 February 2021

Issue publication date: 10 August 2021

1222

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to estimate the time–frequency connectedness among global financial markets. It draws a comparison between the full sample and the sample during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses the connectedness framework of Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) and Barunik and Krehlik (2018), both of which consider time and frequency connectedness and show that spillover is specific to not only the time domain but also the frequency (short- and long-run) domain. The analysis also includes pairwise connectedness by making use of network analysis. Daily data on the MSCI World Index, Barclays Bloomberg Global Treasury Index, Oil future, Gold future, Dow Jones World Islamic Index and Bitcoin have been used over the period from May 01, 2013 to July 31, 2020.

Findings

This study finds that cryptocurrency, bond and gold are hedges against both conventional stocks and Islamic stocks on average; however, these are not “safe havens” during an economic crisis, i.e. COVID-19. External shocks, such as COVID-19, strengthen the return connectedness among all six financial markets.

Research limitations/implications

For investors, the study provides important insights that during external shocks such as COVID-19, there is a spillover effect, and investors are unable to hedge risk between conventional stocks and Islamic stocks. These so-called safe haven investment alternatives suffer from the similar negative impact of systemic financial risk. However, during an external shock such as COVID-19, cryptocurrencies, bonds and gold can be used to hedge risk against conventional stocks, Islamic stocks and oil. Moreover, the findings imply that by engaging in momentum trading, active investors can gain short-run benefits before the market processes any new information.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the emergent literature investigating the connectedness among financial markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides evidence that the return connectedness among six global financial markets, namely, conventional stocks, Islamic stocks, bond, oil, gold and cryptocurrency, is extremely strong. From a methodological standpoint, this study finds that COVID-19 pandemic shock has a significant short-run impact on the connectedness among financial markets.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Competing interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author contribution: The authors declare that the manuscript was approved by all the listed authors before submission. All the authors declare to receive all substantive correspondence with editors, including the submission and the reviews. The authors verify that all data, materials and figures meet the reproducibility and transparency standards of both the journal and field.

Muhammad Abubakr Naeem gratefully acknowledges the support of Science Foundation Ireland under grant number 16/SPP/3347.

Citation

Naeem, M.A., Sehrish, S. and Costa, M.D. (2021), "COVID-19 pandemic and connectedness across financial markets", Pacific Accounting Review, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 165-178. https://doi.org/10.1108/PAR-08-2020-0114

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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