ABSTRACT
Purpose: This paper aims to examine the dynamic spillover effects and network connectedness between the oil prices and the Islamic and conventional financial markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The focus is on network connectedness during the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, the 2014–2016 oil crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors use daily data covering the period from January 1, 2007 to April 14, 2022. Design/methodology/approach: This study applies a spillover analysis and connectedness network to investigate the risk contagion among the Islamic and conventional stock–bond markets. The authors rely on Diebold and Yilmaz's (2012, 2014) methodology to construct network-associated measures. Findings: The results suggest that overall connectedness among financial market uncertainties increased during the global financial crisis, the oil price collapse of 2014–2016 and the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, the authors show that the contribution of oil shocks to the financial system is limited, as the oil market was a net receiver during the 2014 oil shock and the COVID-19 crisis. On the other hand, the Islamic and conventional stock markets are extensive sources of network effects on the oil market and Islamic and conventional bond markets. Furthermore, the authors found that the Sukuk market was significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the conventional and Islamic stock markets were the highest transmitters of shocks during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Moreover, oil revealed a weak connectedness with the Islamic and conventional stock markets during the COVID-19 health crisis, implying that it helps provide diversification benefits for international portfolio investors. Originality/value: This study contributes to this field by improving the understanding of the effect of fluctuations in oil prices on the dynamics of the volatility connection between oil and Islamic and conventional financial markets during times of stress through a network connectedness framework. The main results of this study highlight the role of oil in portfolio allocation and risk minimization when investing in Islamic and conventional assets. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Purpose The main objective of this paper is to investigate whether the investors' behavior under optimistic (pessimistic) conditions has an impact on risk transmission between the Chinese stock and bond markets and the sector indices mainly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a new measure of the investor's sentiment based on Google trend to construct a Chinese investor's sentiment index and a quantile causal approach to examine the causal relationship between googling investor's sentiment and the Chinese stock and bond markets as well as the sector indices. On the other hand, the network connectedness is used to estimate the spillover effect on the investor's sentiment and index returns. To check the robustness of the study results, the authors employed the Chinese VIX, as another measure of the investor's sentiment using daily data from May 2019 to December 2020. Findings In fact, the authors found a dual causality between the investor's sentiment and the financial market indices in optimistic or pessimistic situations, which indicates that positive and negative financial market returns may have an effect on the Chinese investor's sentiment. In addition, the results indicated that a pessimistic investor's sentiment has a negative impact on the banking, healthcare and utility sectors. In fact, the study results provide a significant peak of connectivity between the investor's sentiment, the stock market and the sector indices during the 2015-2016 and 2019-2020 turmoil periods that coincide respectively with the 2015 recession of the Chinese economy and the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value This finding suggests that the Chinese googling investor's sentiment is considered as a prominent channel of shock spillovers during the coronavirus crisis, which confirms the behavioral contagion. This study also identifies the contribution of a particular interest for portfolio managers and investors, which helps them to accordingly design their portfolio strategy.
ABSTRACT
Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamic network connectedness between stock markets and commodity futures and its implications on hedging strategies. Specifically, the authors studied the impact of the 2014 oil price drop and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on risk spillovers and portfolio allocation among stock markets (United States (SP500), China (SSEC), Japan (Nikkei 225), France (CAC40) and Germany (DAX)) and commodities (oil and gold). Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors used the Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (BEKK-GARCH) model to estimate shock transmission among the five financial markets and the two commodities. The authors rely on Diebold and Yilmaz (2014, 2015) methodology to construct network-associated measures. Findings Relying on the BEKK-GARCH, the authors found that the recent health crisis of COVID-19 intensified the volatility spillovers among stock markets and commodities. Using the dynamic network connectedness, the authors showed that at the 2014 oil price drop and the COVID-19 pandemic shock, the Nikkei225 moderated the transmission of volatility to the majority of markets. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the commodity markets are a net receiver of volatility shocks from stock markets. In addition, the SP500 stock market dominates the network connectedness dynamic during the COVID-19 pandemic, while DAX index is the weakest risk transmitter. Regarding the portfolio allocation and hedging strategies, the study showed that the oil market is the most vulnerable and risky as it was heavily affected by the two crises. The results show that gold is a hedging tool during turmoil periods. Originality/value This study contributes to knowledge in this area by improving our understanding of the influence of fluctuations in oil prices on the dynamics of the volatility connection between stock markets and commodities during the COVID-19 pandemic shock. The study's findings provide more implications regarding portfolio management and hedging strategies that could help investors optimize their portfolios.