Author(s): Manan Agrawal, Janki Mistry
Coronavirus was able to spread way more quickly than expected, destroying the daily functioning of many of the major economic centres and forced people away from each other Roy. Today, the world has reached new heights of interdependence which allows for great opportunities to rise, however, the negative effects of the same such as the pace at which pandemics such as the coronavirus spread, cannot be ignored. Coronavirus absolutely destroyed Europe as the nations were unprepared for self-sustenance. COVID-19 has also helped Europe question its intercontinental dependence. The political situation too is destructive, this can be seen through the dilemma governments are facing. For instance, in India during the first wave when the lockdown was imposed, the government was criticized for the economic loss, in contrast, during the second wave as the lockdown was not timely imposed, the government was criticized for the rise in the number of deaths and cases. Nations around Europe have adopted strict policies to stop the spread of the virus. Complete lockdowns, work from home, social distancing and usage of face masks in public places have become commonplace in most countries of the world. Japan has allocated more than 4.5 trillion Japanese yen in just two supplementary budgets in 2020 for healthcare (Asgari, 2021).The Indian government has spent more than half that amount for medical equipment such as personal protective equipment kits, ventilators as well as test kits until April 2020 and the European Union has spent 2,364.3 billion Euro on coronavirus recovery till 17th May 2021 European Council. There is hope though as it is obvious that coronavirus will one day be a thing of the past. This paper aims at examining the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on stock markets of selected Eurasian countries. Covid-19 disrupted economic activities across all sectors, including the stock markets. It has become amply clear that the government systems all over the world have collapsed and have been largely unable to control both the first and the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper analyzes the volatility of the Eurasian stock markets pre coronavirus, during coronavirus and post coronavirus periods for the first wave of the pandemic. Stock market data of France, Britain, India, Japan, and Germany were analyzed and compared to see the impact of the pandemic on the major indices of Eurasian countries. It has been found that there is a definite difference in the volatility of the above mentioned stock market returns pre, during and post coronavirus periods of the first wave. This is found through comparison between the pre and during period, during and post period, and pre and post period.