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Covid-19 impact on Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the duration of the pandemic period
For a considerable time and for different reasons, the financial system shocks endured during rare events continue to pique investors' and policymakers' keen interest. Consequently, this study explores COVID-19's impact on the JSE. The pandemic caused significant shocks to financial systems and econ...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Graduate School of Business (GSB)
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613239946248192 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Dube, Siyabonga |
| author2 | Alhassan, Abdul Latif |
| author_browse | Alhassan, Abdul Latif Dube, Siyabonga |
| author_facet | Alhassan, Abdul Latif Dube, Siyabonga |
| author_sort | Dube, Siyabonga |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | For a considerable time and for different reasons, the financial system shocks endured during rare events continue to pique investors' and policymakers' keen interest. Consequently, this study explores COVID-19's impact on the JSE. The pandemic caused significant shocks to financial systems and economies. Uncertainties emanating from investor fear in response to the pandemic outbreak affected portfolio investment decisions. Additionally, policymakers implemented ‘social distancing' and stringent measures to restrict the contagion of the health crisis, which had a disruptive impact on global value chains. To limit these adverse effects, policymakers — subject to budgetary constraints — implemented fiscal, monetary, and other stimulus packages to lessen the adverse impact on the real economy. Extensive studies have examined the reaction and recovery of financial and economic markets following pandemic-induced shocks. These studies draw on theories from behavioural finance, financial risk contagion, and the efficient market hypothesis to analyse market responses and stability. This dissertation builds on the existing literature by examining the health crisis' transmission to the financial markets in an emerging economy. The study employed new deaths and stringency measures implemented during the pandemic period as proxies for COVID-19 and assessed their impact on ALSI returns, the variable of interest, using a quantile regression estimation technique. The results indicate a level of collinearity and multicollinearity between ALSI returns and global financial market performance indicators. The correlation between ALSI returns, the S&P 500 and Implied Volatility is statistically significant at 0.716 and –0.600 respectively. This outcome indicates the deepened integration of South African financial markets with the globe. The flight to safe havens was not observed. Contrasting ALSI returns with macroeconomic factors represented by crude oil and the rand–dollar exchange rate, the relationships are statistically insignificant. The real economy disturbances do not appear to have been transmitted to the financial markets in the long term. Progress in vaccine development and coordinated global policy interventions may have limited the sustained adverse impact on the real economy. This study offers key recommendations for portfolio design, policymaker intervention timing, and the balance between economic stimulation and containment efforts during pandemics. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42090 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:58.612Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| publisherStr | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42090 Covid-19 impact on Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the duration of the pandemic period Dube, Siyabonga Alhassan, Abdul Latif Covid-19 Johannesburg Stock Exchange Pandemic For a considerable time and for different reasons, the financial system shocks endured during rare events continue to pique investors' and policymakers' keen interest. Consequently, this study explores COVID-19's impact on the JSE. The pandemic caused significant shocks to financial systems and economies. Uncertainties emanating from investor fear in response to the pandemic outbreak affected portfolio investment decisions. Additionally, policymakers implemented ‘social distancing' and stringent measures to restrict the contagion of the health crisis, which had a disruptive impact on global value chains. To limit these adverse effects, policymakers — subject to budgetary constraints — implemented fiscal, monetary, and other stimulus packages to lessen the adverse impact on the real economy. Extensive studies have examined the reaction and recovery of financial and economic markets following pandemic-induced shocks. These studies draw on theories from behavioural finance, financial risk contagion, and the efficient market hypothesis to analyse market responses and stability. This dissertation builds on the existing literature by examining the health crisis' transmission to the financial markets in an emerging economy. The study employed new deaths and stringency measures implemented during the pandemic period as proxies for COVID-19 and assessed their impact on ALSI returns, the variable of interest, using a quantile regression estimation technique. The results indicate a level of collinearity and multicollinearity between ALSI returns and global financial market performance indicators. The correlation between ALSI returns, the S&P 500 and Implied Volatility is statistically significant at 0.716 and –0.600 respectively. This outcome indicates the deepened integration of South African financial markets with the globe. The flight to safe havens was not observed. Contrasting ALSI returns with macroeconomic factors represented by crude oil and the rand–dollar exchange rate, the relationships are statistically insignificant. The real economy disturbances do not appear to have been transmitted to the financial markets in the long term. Progress in vaccine development and coordinated global policy interventions may have limited the sustained adverse impact on the real economy. This study offers key recommendations for portfolio design, policymaker intervention timing, and the balance between economic stimulation and containment efforts during pandemics. 2025-11-03T11:32:42Z 2025-11-03T11:32:42Z 2025 2025-11-03T11:28:37Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42090 en eng application/pdf Graduate School of Business (GSB) Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Covid-19 Johannesburg Stock Exchange Pandemic Dube, Siyabonga Covid-19 impact on Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the duration of the pandemic period |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Covid-19 impact on Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the duration of the pandemic period |
| title_full | Covid-19 impact on Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the duration of the pandemic period |
| title_fullStr | Covid-19 impact on Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the duration of the pandemic period |
| title_full_unstemmed | Covid-19 impact on Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the duration of the pandemic period |
| title_short | Covid-19 impact on Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the duration of the pandemic period |
| title_sort | covid 19 impact on johannesburg stock exchange for the duration of the pandemic period |
| topic | Covid-19 Johannesburg Stock Exchange Pandemic |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42090 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dubesiyabonga covid19impactonjohannesburgstockexchangeforthedurationofthepandemicperiod |