Published Online:October 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Accounting Research & Audit Practices
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJARAP141025
DOI:10.71329/IUPJARAP/2025.24.4.282-294
Author Name:Arjun Rana and Meena Sharma
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Finance
Download Format:PDF
Pages:282-294
Researchers have long been interested in the relationship between debt, profitability, company size and firm’s stock market return. The paper tests this relationship in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. It empirically tests whether the traditional relationship between debt, profitability, market size and firm’s stock market return held during the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of profitability, leverage, and firm size on stock returns was studied using the panel least squares regression method. The results show that only market capitalization had a negative and significant relationship with stock returns from 2018 to 2022 in S&P BSE Sensex 100 listed companies. This supports the small firm size effect seen during this period, during the rally. The study shows that the conventional wisdom of high debt, high profitability ratio, and big market size cannot explain a company’s stock return during Covid-19. Hence, other factors like investor sentiment, inflow from Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI), etc. that drive a company’s stock return need to be considered.
The Covid-19 pandemic drastically altered the way companies operated. Some companies lost access to foreign markets overnight, while other domestic players got unparalleled competitionfree market access.