Stock Market Reaction to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Kuwait

The purpose of this study is to examine the Kuwaiti Stock Exchange's (KDE) response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the precautions taken by Kuwaiti authorities to protect their citizens and other residents. To achieve this objective, daily data from four different indexes published by the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) for the period between 24 February and 30 June 2020, as well as daily data on the number of people infected with COVID-19, the daily number of recovered people, the daily number of deaths, lockdown days, and days the country was under curfew. The findings show a significant positive association between the daily recovery of persons infected by COVID-19 and all indexes published by the KSE except for the Boursa Kuwait Main Market 50, where the association was positive but insignificant. A negative and significant association was also found between the closure of the country and each of the four indexes. Although the curfew imposed by the Kuwaiti authorities at an early stage of the pandemic appeared to have a negative effect on the four indexes, the level of association was statistically significant only in the cases of the Main Market index and Boursa Kuwait Main Market 50 index.