The effect of COVID-19 towards healthcare sector in Malaysia stock market / Nur Azlin Syafiqa Che Baharuddin

Since the first case was discovered at the end of 2019, COVID-19 has spread over the world, resulting in over 2 million confirmed cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) labelled the COVID-19 disease a pandemic on March I I, 2020. The CO VID- 19 epidemic has also had an impact on the global financial industry, which includes Malaysia. This study looks into the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the Malaysian stock market's healthcare sector. The analysis also shown that during the COVID- 19 epidemic, there were a few events that had an impact on the Malaysian stock market. The number of COVID-19 cases (COVC), the number of COVID-19 daily death cases (COVD), and the Chicago Board of Exchange (CBOE) index were utilised as independent variables. The study's sample period was from the 2nd of March 2020 to the 31 st of December 2020. According to the findings, COVID- 19 cases (COVC) had a negative relationship with Healthcare sector performance in the Malaysian stock market, with the number of COVID-19 daily death cases being virtually considerably affected by the number of COVID- 19 daily death cases. The COVD has a good working connection with the healthcare industry. The number of death cases in Malaysia had a beneficial impact on the sectorial index's performance. Consequently, a few key findings are reached. First, while the number of new cases of COVID-19 had no effect on the number of daily deaths, it did have a significant impact on healthcare and index returns. Furthermore, this study can assist market participants in understanding the performance of the Malaysian stock market during COVID- 19.