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Purpose: Capital markets are the backbone of an economy. COVID-19 has created an unacceptable and unpredictable economic environment worldwide, resulting in a significant setback for securities exchanges. India also experienced two waves of this pandemic, which led to a significant downturn in the capital market. Design/Methodology/Approach: Researchers have endeavored to study the impact of the first and second waves of COVID-19 on the performance of various sectoral stocks in India. The performance of selected sectoral indices of the Bombay Stock Exchange was compared with the market performance of the S&P BSE 100. An event study was conducted to analyze the normal return, abnormal return (A.R.), and t-statistics of A.R. for various sectoral stocks. In addition, the abnormal returns of sectoral stocks between the first and second waves of COVID-19 in India were compared Findings: The results of the tests showed heterogeneous A.R. between different sectors in both the first and second waves of COVID-19 in India. Positive investor outlook and government financial support programs for various sectors helped them recover from the second wave of COVID-19. Research limitations/implications: The study analyzed the impact of the peak of the first and second waves of COVID-19 on selected sectoral indices. There may be several reasons for the performance of this particular stock index. However, we have tried to analyze the best possible reasons for this turbulence in the performance of stocks of selected sectoral indices. The study can be further analyzed to examine the long-term impact of such a pandemic on other sectors. Originality/value: The study is based on the panic behavior of investors during such a pandemic. No one was prepared for this and expected this pandemic to last this long. This pandemic has taught so many lessons to everyone involved. Investors need to be prepared and cautious for such unforeseen disasters before making any investment decision. They need to analyze which industry can survive under such circumstances, and then they should invest there. Industries and enterprises must adapt and improve by honestly looking at their weaknesses and trying to meet investors' expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the indicators for COVID-19 monitoring and the dynamic of jumps across six major financial markets including China, France, Italy, Germany, the UK, and the US. First, this paper finds that jumps occurred more frequently in the index returns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, the empirical findings suggest that the anxiety stemming from potential future control measures, which were prompted by updates in COVID-19 briefings, plays a significant role in explaining the jumps in index returns within financial markets. The strategies of 'zero tolerance for COVID-19', 'maximum healthcare capacity', and 'less tolerance for restriction' were carried out by China, European countries, and the US respectively. These diverse approaches to managing COVID-19 have a significant and varied impact on the market's sudden price movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corporate firms are affected by the impact of Covid-19 crisis on business activities, cash flow, and firm leverage. It is required to analyze the Speed of Adjustment (SoA) through which firms adjust their leverage toward target during Covid-19. We conduct leverage adjustment analytics by estimating the partial adjustment model, which empirically analyzes the effect of Covid-19 crisis on leverage adjustment. To analyse SoA for book and market leverage of firms, we applied the well-known partial adjustment model. We constructed three research hypotheses and models as following. First, we analyzed the SoA for the Pre-Covid, Covid-19, and Post-Covid periods. Second, we analyzed the SoA for financially flexible and constrained firms during the Covid-19 crisis. Third, we evaluated the effect of three Covid waves on the leverage adjustment. We found three types of empirical evidence on 611 Indian firms to validate three proposed hypotheses and models. First, the SoA is faster during the Covid-19 crisis than Pre-Covid for Indian firms. During Covid-19 period, the SoA for (book and market) leverage per quarter is found to be (5.43% and 8.64%), which is higher than the Pre-Covid period (3.86% and 4.29%). The Post-Covid period recorded a higher SoA for book leverage (8.18%) and lower for market leverage (7.57%). Second, during Covid-19 period, the financially flexible firms had a faster SoA than the constrained firms. Third, Covid waves have positive and significant effects on the leverage adjustment of Indian firms. The robustness test confirms our findings that corporate firms had increased SoA during the Covid-19 crisis, and financially-flexible firms adjusted their leverage more rapidly than constrained firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign institutional investment has played a significant role in India's recent economic progress. During the 2008 global financial crisis, the influence of foreign institutional investment on India's economic growth was uneven. With this context in mind, the objective of this study is to analyze the influence of COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines administered and lockdown stringency on the inflow and outflow of foreign institutional investment in India, using the daily data from January 30, 2020 to January 24, 2022. To achieve the objective of the present study, we have employed the wavelet coherence approach, and Breitung–Candelon spectral granger causality approaches. The outcomes of the wavelet coherence approach show that foreign institutional investment has responded negatively to both the COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown stringency. Interesting, the response of foreign institutional investment was observed to be hostile towards COVID-19 vaccines; which underscores wait and see strategy of investors during the sample period. The frequency-domain causality approach affirms the lead–lag relationship between COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines administered, lockdown stringency, and foreign institutional investment. We conclude that COVID-19 and lockdown are predictive factors for future foreign institutional investment at different frequencies. The study is an original work and offers useful policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shaken the global economy and significantly affected the financial markets. This anxiety triggered panic reactions. The article aims to explain impact of abrupt changes in structural stability of four key asset markets due to pandemic. It includes a detail discussion regarding structural change in co-movement of stock indices, exchange rates, minerals and metal returns. The daily returns of 14 financial indices across four groups during a span of 25 January 2019 to 3 February 2021 are sampled. The selection of financial assets is based on trading volume and velocity in each of the four groups. The results of Markov Switching model explain that pandemic not only increase volatility of financial markets but also have a significant long-term impact on structural behaviour in daily returns. The analysis further reveals differences in co-movement of financial returns during two periods. However, on a positive note, pandemic does make a way for few financial assets to dominate the market, especially ones recognised as 'safe-haven' assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The devastating acute COVID-19 epidemic crippled the global economy in 2020. Within a month of the COVID-19 epidemic, every industry saw its stock prices plummet the most. Ending the COVID-19 pandemic will need equitable access to safe and effective vaccinations. This study aims to look at the link between COVID-19 vaccination and the stock markets for health and pharmaceutical sector. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers used a mean-adjusted return model and event research approach to figure out how the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine affects health and pharmaceutical sector stock market returns. Findings: The evidence-based outcome indicates that immunisation announcement affects health and pharmaceutical company returns. Furthermore, the study concludes that the health and pharmaceutical industry is inefficient for a short period of time, but after 41 days, the sector absorbs the noisy information. Originality/value: Since the outbreak, the development of COVID-19 vaccines has been a key focus of shareholders and investors. This study is unique in that it investigates the effect of the first dosage of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on equity returns in the health and pharmaceutical industries, and it is likely to make a substantial contribution to the capital market literature on event methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on five (5) Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sectorial stocks (NSE Insurance, NSE Banking, NSE Oil and Gas, NSE Food and Beverages, and NSE Consumer Goods). To achieve the goal of this paper, daily stock prices were obtained from a secondary source ranging from 2 January 2020 to 25 March 2021. Because of the importance of incorporating structural breaks in modelling stock returns, the Zivot–Andrews unit root test revealed 20 January 2021, 26 March 2020, 27 July 2020, 23 March 2020 and 23 March 2020 as potential break points for NSE Insurance, NSE Food, Beverages and Tobacco, NSE Oil and Gas, NSE Banking, and NSE Consumer Goods, respectively. This study investigates the volatility in daily stock returns for the five (5) Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sectorial stocks using nine versions of GARCH models (sGARCH, girGARCH, eGARCH, iGARCH, aPARCH, TGARCH, NGARCH, NAGARCH, and AVGARCH); in addition, the half-life and persistence values were obtained. The study used the Student t- and skewed Student t-distributions. The results from the GARCH models revealed a negative impact of COVID-19 on the NSE Insurance, NSE Food, Beverages and Tobacco, NSE Banking, and NSE Consumer Goods stock returns; however, the NSE Oil and Gas returns showed a positive correlation with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study recommends that the shareholders, investors, and policy players in the Nigerian Stock Exchange markets should be adequately prepared in the form of diversification of investment in stocks that can withstand future possible crises in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study intends to identify the behavioural antecedents of investors' attitude and investment intention toward mutual funds using a robust SEM‐ANN approach. It focuses on novel factors in the purview of the COVID‐19 pandemic, increasing digitalization and social media usage. The research outcome indicates that attitude (ATB), awareness (AW) and investment decision involvement (IDI) have a significant positive relation with investment intention (BI). In contrast, perceived barrier (PBR) negatively relates to investment intention. Herd behaviour (HB) and social media influence (SMI) do not influence investment intention toward mutual funds. Moreover, all the tested predictors share direct relation with the attitude toward mutual fund investment, barring perceived risk (PR), which has an inverse relationship. As per the outcome of ANN sensitivity analysis, attitude is the most crucial determinant of investment intention. It is followed by awareness (AW), perceived barriers (PBR) and investment decision involvement (IDI). Among the significant determinants of attitude, self‐efficacy (SE) is the most important determinant, followed by perceived usefulness (PU), perceived emergency (PEMER), subjective norms (SN) and perceived risk (PR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the dynamics of the impact of the evolving policy response during the COVID‐19 pandemic on the equity market sentiment in India. We operationalise our study by examining the India VIX, the fear gauge of the Indian equity market as an indicator for the market sentiment, and the country level Government Response Index of the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University as an indicator for the policy response. The relation is examined through the Markov‐switching model using high‐frequency daily data from January 30, 2020, to May 31, 2021. The evidence suggests that the policy response has a positive impact on the market sentiment when the market is fearful. Further, the evidence suggests that both the high‐fear state and the low‐fear state of the market sentiment given by the model are short‐lived indicating heightened volatility and possible speculation during the ongoing pandemic in the Indian equity market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Whilst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination rollout is well underway, there is a concern in Africa where less than 2% of global vaccinations have occurred. In the absence of herd immunity, health promotion remains essential. YouTube has been widely utilised as a source of medical information in previous outbreaks and pandemics. +ere are limited data on COVID-19 information on YouTube videos, especially in languages widely spoken in Africa. +is study investigated the quality and reliability of such videos. Methods. Medical information related to COVID-19 was analysed in 11 languages (English, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Nigerian Pidgin, Hausa, Twi, Arabic, Amharic, French, and Swahili). Cohen's Kappa was used to measure inter-rater reliability. A total of 562 videos were analysed. Viewer interaction metrics and video characteristics, source, and content type were collected. Quality was evaluated using the Medical Information Content Index (MICI) scale and reliability was evaluated by the modified DISCERN tool. Results. Kappa coeFcient of agreement for all languages was p < 0.01. Informative videos (471/562, 83.8%) accounted for the majority, whilst misleading videos (12/562, 2.13%) were minimal. Independent users (246/562, 43.8%) were the predominant source type. Transmission of information (477/562 videos, 84.9%) was most prevalent, whilst content covering screening or testing was reported in less than a third of all videos. +e mean total MICI score was 5.75/5 (SD 4.25) and the mean total DISCERN score was 3.01/5 (SD 1.11). Conclusion. YouTube is an invaluable, easily accessible resource for information dissemination during health emergencies. Misleading videos are often a concern; however, our study found a negligible proportion. Whilst most videos were fairly reliable, the quality of videos was poor, especially noting a dearth of information covering screening or testing. Governments, academic institutions, and healthcare workers must harness the capability of digital platforms, such as YouTube to contain the spread of misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of the stringency of COVID-19 protocols on the volatility of sectoral indices during the period 03:2020–05:2021. Specifically, this study investigates the role of economic disturbances on sectoral volatility by applying a range of conditional volatility techniques. Design/methodology/approach: For this analysis, two approaches were adopted. The first approach considers COVID stringency as a factor in the conditional variance equation of sectoral indices. In contrast, the second approach considers the stringency indicator as a possible determinant of their estimated conditional volatility. Findings: Results show that the stringency of the protocols throughout the pandemic phase led to an instantaneous spike followed by a gradual decrease in estimated volatility of all the sectoral indices except pharma and health care. Specific sectors such as bank, FMCG, consumer durables, financial services, IT, media and private banks respond to protocols expeditiously compared to other sectors. Originality/value: The key contribution of this study to the existing literature is the innovative approach. The inclusion of the COVID stringency index as a regressor in the variance equation of the conditional volatility techniques was a distinctive approach for assessing the volatility dynamics with the stringency of COVID protocols. Furthermore, this study also adopts an alternative approach that estimates the conditional volatility of the indices and then tests the effect of the stringencies on estimated volatility in a regression framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profound inspection of the life forms on the earth teaches how to be the complexity of interrelationships among the various systems. Because of the emergence of novel viruses all the time and the inadequate of vaccines and antivirals, viral contagions are amongst the most causative diseases affecting people worldwide. Fungi exemplify a massive source of bioactive molecules as, many fungal secondary metabolities like Oxoglyantrypine, Carneic acid F, Scedapin C, Asteltoxin E, Phomanolide, Norquinadoline A and Quinadoline B have antiviral activity. This review deals with how secondary metabolites of fungi can help in the war against viruses in general and especially Coronaviruses moreover several pieces of literature pointed out that many clusters of fungi in different biotopes are waiting to be exploited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impacts of pandemic‐induced economic policy uncertainties (PIEPU) on the S&P500, Nasdaq‐100, and Dow Jones indexes (stock returns). To this aim, for the first time, newly created IDEMV (the Infectious Disease Equity Market Volatility index (henceforth, PIEPU index) is used. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and the Toda and Yamamoto (Journal of Econometrics, 1995, 66, pp. 225–250) causality test are applied for the 2009–2020 period. Empirical findings indicate that rises in the PIEPU index lead to falls of only the S&P500 and Dow Jones indexes. Corporations in the tech‐heavy Nasdaq100 index do not negatively respond to rises in the PIEPU index. Additionally, the negative impacts of the rises in the specifically COVID‐19 based‐constructed PIEPU (DCOVPIEPU) index on the S&P500 and Dow Jones indexes are higher than the negative impacts of the general PIEPU index. This can be interpreted to mean that the larger the magnitude and spread rate of a pandemic, the larger the negative impacts on stock returns. In the sample period of this study, COVID‐19 is the largest and most destructive pandemic compared to H1N1 and Ebola. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, a study has been made over the prime stock indices of some fiscally prominent countries impacted by COVID-19. The countries are separated in two ways: (1) considering gross total number of infected cases—here seven mostly impacted countries with certain global economic influence are selected; (2) considering the concentration of the infected cases—here six major impacted countries with considerable influence are selected. This sort of categorization is itself a novel strategy which is capable of including some less populated, but severely impacted countries of economic importance. The objective of the present analysis is to comprehend the impact of COVID-19 on these markets and to recognize the effect of COVID-19 on mutual association and dependence between these markets. To add more flavour of reliability, we have taken a new and fresh strategy of fixing the time frames under consideration before and during COVID-19 pandemic as uniform. We have used both linear and nonlinear Granger causality analysis and employed generalized forecast error variance decomposition analysis to review the exogeneity and endogeneity of the individual markets. The present study shows that this pandemic has changed the underlying relationship: some exogenous stock markets have become endogenous and vice versa in the pandemic. Linear relationship has been reduced radically, whereas nonlinear relationship has been improved during the COVID-affected period. TASE, the highest returned and significantly uncorrelated index, emerged as the most exogenous market in the pre-COVID period, though it is nonlinearly endogenous in the long term, in the COVD-affected period. CAC 40 is the most endogenous market for the short term in both pre-COVID and COVID-affected period. B3 and NYSE, exogenous in the pre-COVID period, turned out to be linearly endogenous in the COVID-affected duration, whereas BIST 100 and BSE SENSEX are found to be exogenous markets in the COVID-affected period according to both linear and nonlinear causal analysis. They were also exogenous in the pre-COVID era for the short-term period, with BSE SENSEX exhibiting exogeneity anti-persistently for the COVID-affected period too. Association among the markets is more in long term rather than short term. A possible conclusion is also that the markets may regain long-term association once the effect of COVID would fade away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Fever with jaundice is one of the most common presentations seen in both outdoor and indoor patients. This manifestation is seen in many individuals infected with hepatotropic viruses (A to E), bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and non hepatotropic viruses. In viral hepatitis due to hepatotropic viruses the patient presents with a short febrile prodrome followed by jaundice, and is often self-limiting without any treatment whereas in patients other than viral hepatitis the patients present with ongoing fever and jaundice and need specific treatment. Aim: To evaluate clinical profile of patients presenting with febrile jaundice and finding the infections agent responsible for fever with jaundice baring viral hepatitis (A to E). Materials and Methods: This observational prospective study included 107 patients admitted in the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, from September 2019 to August 2021, who were found to have febrile jaundice after initial evaluation, based on liver function tests and hepatotropic viral markers {hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), Immunoglobulin M antibody against hepatitis C virus (Anti-HCV IgM), Immunoglobulin M antibody against hepatitis A virus (Anti-HAV IgM), Immunoglobulin M antibody against hepatitis E virus (Anti-HEV IgM)}. Routine laboratory parameters, chest radiograph, and electrocardiogram were performed in all cases. Appropriate investigations like specific serological, radiological investigations and cultures were performed to identify the causal pathogen. Statistical analysis of categorical variables was conducted by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 26.0 version. Results: Out of 107 patients, (23.3%) patients were found to have scrub typhus. Dengue was found in 23 (21.4%) patients (three had dengue associated with scrub typhus). Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was found in 11 patients (10.2%) of study population. Malaria, tuberculosis, S. typhi, K. pneumonia, E. coli, B. cepacia, E. feacalis were isolated in other individuals. Among these, 41.12% patients had associated transaminitis, whereas, 16 had elevated aspartate transaminase/alanine transaminase (>3 times of ULN). Overall, 18.4% patients had hepatomegaly, and 6.5% were found to have splenomegaly. Eight patients had septic shock, and associated Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) was seen in six patients. No definitive aetiology was found in 25 patients. Conclusion: The study identified a variety of organisms in sera from the patients presenting with febrile jaundice. The most common clinical feature was anorexia followed by headache. The common aetiology for febrile jaundice was viral infections {barring viral hepatitis (A to E)} followed by bacterial Infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crisis caused by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the economic situation worldwide, including the stock exchange quotations. The aim of the research is to assess the reaction to crisis situations of share prices of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (Poland) belonging to three main macrosectors: Industry, Finance and Services. The main part of the analysis concerns the market reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic during its first wave. The study utilises the survival analysis methods, which allowed for an assessment and comparison of the situation of the three macrosectors. The duration of the decline in share prices and the recovery time were analysed. The intensity and probability of the decline and subsequent increase in share prices were also examined. The Kaplan–Meier estimator, Cox regression model and logit model were used in the study. The pandemic shocks differed significantly from shocks caused by economic crises in the past. We showed that the differences for macro-sector share price declines were statistically insignificant. For price increases, the Finance macrosector differed from the other macrosectors. The probability, intensity and odds of an increase in share prices of companies belonging to this macrosector were lower than for the other macrosectors. In addition, we compared the obtained results with the results of previous studies conducted for the period of the financial crisis in 2008–2009 and the bear market in 2011. We pointed out the differences between the crisis caused by the pandemic and the other crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 is the latest among the many pandemics in the last few decades in the world, and it has stricken the global economy severely. It has consequently affected the stock market, which affects the economy of the country to a great extent. Some research has managed to analyse the impacts on the stock market during the outbreak; however, few of them have been related to relationship analytics. Here, we proposed a methodology based on pure data analytics, which gathers two types of data, event and stock index in China, to explore their relationship through analysing the stock index's shift in reacting to pertinent social events, hence revealing insights into how events affect fluctuations in stock indices. The results showed that the relationship does exist in most cases. However, the closeness of the relationship may also be associated with the location of the stock company and other factors such as its geographical, political, and local authority considerations. This study may potentially assist stakeholders in adjusting their investments in the stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outbreak of Covid has caused serious damage to economic and financial health of affected countries. India is among the worst-hit countries by Covid-19. In order to do the damage, control the government of India and policy makers have formulated and implemented various restrictive policies to lower the rising cases and deaths due to Covid-19. These restrictions proved to be effective in curtailing the rate of rising cases and deaths but adversely affected the economic health of India and Stock Market being a significant reflector of the health of economy also reflected major numbers in red and a period of extreme volatility and risk for current and prospective investors. The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the impact of Covid-19 on Sectoral Indices of Manufacturing Sector and Financial Sector of India. This study is based on data from January 30, 2018 to January 31, 2022. TGARCH (1,1) model is identified and estimated to study the conditional volatility in sectoral markets. Sectoral indices of Bombay Stock Exchange have been analyzed in this study. It was found that S&P BSE Manufacturing Sectoral Index and S&P BSE Finance Sectoral Index experienced higher risk after the outbreak of Covid-19 in India. They respond more strongly to negative news as compared to positive news. Covid-19 has not significantly affected the returns in these sectors, but has been identified as an underlying cause to rise in volatility in Finance Sectoral Index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ubiquitous nature of social media (SM) makes it a very essential tool to use in the world of education, especially with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to a paradigm shift in the approaches used in the teaching and learning of English language skills. This review focuses on the use of social media as a medium of instruction to aid the acquisition of speaking skills, which many learners find extremely challenging and inhibiting. Thus, this systematic review investigates the integration of social media in the teaching and learning of speaking skills. To ensure the systematic analysis of the selected articles, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines were utilized. A total of 36 peer-reviewed journal articles from the year 2016 to 2021 were accessed from two databases: ERIC and Google Scholar. Prior to the start of the review, an inclusion and exclusion criteria selection process was conducted to ensure the focus of the review. Overall, the articles reviewed presented the claim that the integration of social media is seen as a positive inclusion for the teaching of speaking skills using various social media applications. Findings reveal that there are improvements in speaking skills, as well as confidence to speak and a decline in speaking anxiety. Teachers and educators can now make use of the various social media platforms such as Telegram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and others to provide learners with more practice that is not only restricted to the classroom but has moved beyond it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networking sites such as Twitter have been a popular choice for people to express their opinions, report real-life events, and provide a perspective on what is happening around the world. In the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have used Twitter to spontaneously share data visualizations from news outlets and government agencies and to post casual data visualizations that they individually crafted. We conducted a Twitter crawl of 5409 visualizations (from the period between 14 April 2020 and 9 May 2020) to capture what people are posting. Our study explores what people are posting, what they retweet the most, and the challenges that may arise when interpreting COVID-19 data visualization on Twitter. Our findings show that multiple factors, such as the source of the data, who created the chart (individual vs. organization), the type of visualization, and the variables on the chart influence the retweet count of the original post. We identify and discuss five challenges that arise when interpreting these casual data visualizations, and discuss recommendations that should be considered by Twitter users while designing COVID-19 data visualizations to facilitate data interpretation and to avoid the spread of misconceptions and confusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]