The Impact of COVID-19 on Stock Price: An Application of Event Study Method in Vietnam

Vietnam’s Oil and gas industry make a significant contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of Vietnam. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has hit every industry hard, but perhaps the one industry which has taken the biggest hit is the global oil and gas industry. The purpose of this article is to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the share price of the Vietnam Oil and Gas industry. The event study method applied to Oil and Gas industry index data around three event days includes: (i) The date Vietnam recognized the first patient to be COVID-19 positive was January 23, 2020; (ii) The second outbreak of COVID-19 infection in the community began on March 6, 2020; (iii) The date (30/3/2020) when Vietnam announced the COVID-19 epidemic in the whole territory. This study found that the share price of the Vietnam Oil and Gas industry responded positively after the event (iii) which is manifested by the cumulative abnormal return of CAR (0; 3] = 3.8% and statistically significant at 5 %. In the study, event (ii) has the most negative and strong impact on Oil and Gas stock prices. Events (i) favor negative effects, events (iii) favor positive effects, but abnormal return change sign quickly from positive to negative after the event date and statistically significant shows the change on investors’ psychology.