Does Stock Market React to Terrorist Attack? An Evidence from 9/11 Attack Using Event Study

Abstract

The global economy and financial markets around the world are said to be adversely affected by the terrorist attack of 11 September 2001. The present study empirically evaluates the impacts of terrorist attacks on the top 20 stock market indices of the world. The Event study approach is used to conclude that there is a significant impact of the terrorist attack on stock indices of the selected countries, as the following stock market indices showed an adverse abnormal return on the day of the event namely, New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange of India, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Bombay Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris Exchange, Johannesburg stock exchange and Euronext Brussels. While the rest of the selected stock markets showed a positive abnormal return on the event date. In the following days of the event, the Stock exchange in China showed a negative abnormal CAR for 80 days, while stock exchanges in India showed a negative abnormal CAR in the 20 days following the event. Most of the stock exchanges were not much affected by the event, even if there was an effect it didn’t last long, as the abnormal return was positive after a while.