Study on Performance of Prominent Stocks of Automobile and Banking Sectors in Pre-Covid and during Covid Period

Abstract

There was a severe impact of outbreak of the pandemic of corona virus (COVID-19) on stock markets across the globe and Indian stock markets were no exception to this. With the outbreak of Covid, stock market indices fell sharply leading to drastic reduction in market capitalization of the listed companies. In fact, two lower circuit breakers were applied in India within a period of less than a month, a never before event in the history of Indian stock market. The scene at global front was no different. Though this trend was reversed after rapid vaccination and some control over the pandemic. This study is an endeavour to analyze the performance of prominent stocks in Pre-Covid and During Covid period in Indian stock market. The researchers have analysed prominent stocks of two vital sectors of the Indian economy i.e. Automobile Sector and Banking Sector in terms of their risk and return on comparative basis in pre-covid and during covid time periods. The study reveals that banking sector offered higher return in pre-Covid period while automobile Sector offered better return in during Covid period. In terms of risk also, banking sector had higher risk in pre-covid, and automobile sector had more risk in during Covid period. The study also indicates that there exists a statistically significant difference in the return and risk of most of the stocks in pre-covid and during covid periods.