Title: Best performing stock market sectors of COVID-19 era: factors behind the success of healthcare and consumer staples sectors

Authors: Sahnaz Kocoglu; Aybuke Yalcin; Cemre Eda Erkilic

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Yücetepe Aveneu, 85. Street, 06570, Ankara, Turkey ' Department of Land Registry and Cadaster, Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, College of Land Registry and Cadastre, Yukarı Dikmen, 06450 Ankara, Turkey ' Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Polatlı Social Sciences Vocational School Şehitlik, No:22, 06900 Ankara, Turkey

Abstract: In the study, we investigate the impact of S&P500 index, the number of COVID-19 cases, VIX index and oil prices on the stock market performance of healthcare and consumer staples sectors during the pandemic as these sectors have emerged as the best performing sectors in the USA in the era of COVID-19. We employ ARDL approach and Granger causality over the period 6 April-30 October 2020. ARDL bounds test results reveal that the number of cases had a positive effect on both sectors while the financial markets were adversely affected by the increasing number of cases. Moreover, decreasing oil prices driven by the negative economic expectations positively affected the sectors. The number of cases and VIX index granger cause the healthcare sector index while both sector indices cause the oil prices. This study is the first to investigate the factors behind the success of healthcare and consumer staples sectors.

Keywords: S&P 500; COVID-19; consumer staples; healthcare; stock return; consumer behaviour; ARDL approach.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2023.133103

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2023 Vol.26 No.3, pp.307 - 324

Received: 01 May 2021
Accepted: 10 Jul 2021
Published online: 01 Sep 2023 *

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