This paper investigates the short‐term response of the Saudi stock market (Tadawul) to the COVID‐19 outbreak. Event study methodology applied to data derived from the 21 industry groups that constitute the Saudi stock market to calculate abnormal returns for the trading days after the announcement of the COVID‐19 in both China and Saudi Arabia. The results indicate that the estimated CARs for the industry groups and their sum on the event day were not statistically significant. Furthermore, the formal announcement of the first case of the COVID‐19 in China had a negative but not significant impact on the Saudi stock market. In contrast, in the first 9‐days event window, the announcement of the first confirmed case in Saudi Arabia had a negative and significant effect. Moreover, the most negatively affected industry groups were banks, consumer services, capital goods, transportation and commercial services, whereas telecommunication services and food and beverage were positively affected at the event window (+1, +9). In general, the Saudi stock market's response had become weaker in the event windows come after (+1, +9), and different industry groups were found to have different responses to the COVID‐19 outbreak.

This study investigates the effect of the inflation rate in Sudan on stock returns on the Khartoum Stock Exchange. The linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was applied to monthly data over the period from September 2003 to December 2019, with the exchange and money supply growth rates, and Murabaha profit margin as control variables. As no previous studies have studied the effect of inflation on stock returns by means of the ARDL approach, this study intends to fill this gap in the current body of literature. The results show that the inflation rate exerts a significantly negative effect on stock returns in both the short and long term, which is crucial to the understanding of all, but especially developing, economies, such as Sudan. First, policymakers must formulate strategies to control inflation and stabilize the stock market; second, any decision-making on short-and long-term investments should take account of these findings. Contribution/Originality:This study offers two contributions to the existing literature with regard to the effect of inflation rates on stock returns. First, only two similar studies undertaken in Sudan are known to exist. Second, neither of these studies adopted the linear ARDL model, which is regarded as the most reliable analysis technique.

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