Do Crude Oil Price Fluctuations Affect the Sectoral Stock Returns: Evidence from India

• Published in: Journal of commerce and accounting research 2024, Vol.13 (3), p.31-43
• Main Authors: Pathak, Harsh Raj, Kumar, Satish
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2277-2146; 2320-4990
• DOI: 10.21863/jcar/2024.13.3.004

Crude oil is a vital energy source for industrialised and developing countries. Both investors who trade crude oil derivatives and firms that use oil as raw material for production monitor oil supply and demand. Disruption in the flow of oil in the commodity markets, therefore, leads to oil price volatility that affects major economies worldwide. Often, geopolitical and natural conditions could adversely impact the oil price and the financial markets react to such fluctuations in oil prices. This paper analyses the effects of oil price changes on sectorial stock returns in India. Using daily returns of S&P BSE Sensex, S&P BSE Oil & Gas and S&P BSE-Auto sectoral indices from January 2000 to March 2020, we examined the impact of Brent crude oil price fluctuations on the two major sectorial stock indices and overall market index. The results of the Granger causality test show significant results on S&P BSE-Sensex and S&P BSE-Oil and Gas Index Returns except S&P BSE-Auto Index Returns. Further for contemporaneous association between the oil price changes and sectorial returns, we operationalised the simple regression analysis. The results from the regression analysis show statistically significant impact of crude oil price fluctuations on the sectorial returns.