Asymmetric Effects of COVID-19 Deaths and Oil Price Shocks on Stock Market Returns in Some Selected African Countries: Evidence From Nonlinear ARDL Approach

Abstract

This study investigates the asymmetric impact of oil price shocks and COVID-19 total deaths on Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa stock market returns. To achieve this objective employing weekly time series data from March 13, 2020 to September 23, 2022, first, we apply the BDS test which confirm the nonlinearity of each series. Second, stationarity tests are used to investigate each series for unit root. The results show that series are stationary in level and in first difference. Third, the bounds test reveals that the series have a cointegration relationship and we apply the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) ARDL framework to decompose oil price into positive and negative partial sum to investigate a possible asymmetric effect of oil price on stock market returns. The main findings of the asymmetric ARDL model reveal that, in the short-run dynamic, a positive shock in the oil price have a negative and positive effect on stock market returns in Morocco and South Africa respectively. The result is insignificant for Kenya and Nigeria. A negative shock in the oil price have a negative effect on the stock returns in Nigeria, South Africa and in Kenya, Morocco with one period lag. Furthermore, in the long-run, a positive shock in oil price exerts a negative effect on the stock market performance in Morocco and Nigeria while a negative shock in oil price leads to a negative effect also on the stock market returns. The total deaths present a counterintuitive result. Both in the long-run and short-run dynamic, the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 have a significant increasing effect on stock market returns in Kenya, Morocco and South Africa except for Nigeria.