Covid – 19 and Stock Market Performance of Power Sector in India

Corona virus pandemic has hit over millions of people around the world and definitely not the first epidemic the world is witnessing. In fact, the world has seen at least five such epidemics, namely, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Avian Influenza, Swine Flu, Ebola and Zikain last five years. All of these had a cascading effect on the global as well as domestic share markets. It was observed that NIFTY 50 fell as much as 15 per cent during these difficult times, but also recovered over 90 per cent return in the following one year. An investor aims to buy stocks at low and sell at high and thereby earn returns. But once an investor decides to buy a share, it will be very difficult to predict whether the price will go up or down. Stock prices are expected to perform well in long run if the fundamental of the firms are strong. On the other hand, technical analysis may help to predict the short run movement of stock prices. The study aims to assess the stock market performance of companies in power sector in India and examine the performance of the sector which in turn will affect share prices. The data is compiled from the annual reports of companies for last six years 2014-15 to 2019-20. An attempt is made to assess the stock market performance of the sector by taking five sample companies as against that of NIFTY 50 during the time of pandemic and to understand and compare the performance of the sector based on sample companies.