ABSTRACT
Stock index price forecasting is the influential indicator for investors and financial investigators by which decision making capability to achieve maximum benefit with minimum risk can be improved. So, a robust engine with capability to administer useful information is desired to achieve the success. The forecasting effectiveness of stock market is improved in this paper by integrating a modified crow search algorithm (CSA) and extreme learning machine (ELM). The effectiveness of proposed modified CSA entitled as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based Group oriented CSA (PGCSA) to outperform other existing algorithms is observed by solving 12 benchmark problems. PGCSA algorithm is used to achieve relevant weights and biases of ELM to improve the effectiveness of conventional ELM. The impact of hybrid PGCSA ELM model to predict next day closing price of seven different stock indices is observed by using performance measures, technical indicators and hypothesis test (paired t-test). The seven stock indices are considered by incorporating data during COVID-19 outbreak. This model is tested by comparing with existing techniques proposed in published works. The simulation results provide that PGCSA ELM model can be considered as a suitable tool to predict next day closing price.