Sectoral Comparison of Herding During Global Financial Crisis and Covid-19: Comparative Analysis of Shariah Compliant and Conventional Stocks

Abstract

The worldwide financial environment has experienced substantial upheavals amid both the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. Gaining insight into investor behavior, with a specific focus on herd behavior, during these periods is essential for a comprehensive understanding of market dynamics. The authors intend to compare and analyze investor herding behavior in the Pakistani Stock market, specifically focusing on shariah-compliant and conventional stocks during both the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. The study explores how stock return dispersions behave in response to significant upward and downward movements in the market index. Additionally, the research distinguishes between the overall and sector-specific performance of Shariah-compliant and conventional stocks. To examine participant herding behavior, the authors applied the cross-sectional absolute deviation model (CSAD) to the daily data of the Karachi stock market. The results indicate that both Shariah-compliant and conventional stocks exhibited a weak form of herding during the GFC. Furthermore, different sectors displayed varying degrees of herding intensity during this crisis. Notably, a substantial increase in herding behavior was observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings have crucial implications for portfolio diversification strategies during financial crises, emphasizing the identification of safe havens by constructing portfolios across diverse segments and sectors. This research contributes to the existing knowledge on herding behavior by examining two distinct hypotheses related to conventional and shariah-compliant stocks, and the empirical evidence supports these hypotheses.