Stock Market Trading through Mobile Application: An Analysis of Reaction to COVID-19

Abstract

This article aims to assess the need for a stock market mobile trading application in a developing country's capital market, such as Bangladesh's, where stock markets have been closed for more than two months during the first stages of the ongoing pandemic. The effect of COVID-19 is tested using an event study to evaluate if it has a statistically significant impact on the adoption rate of the DSE mobile app. A descriptive research approach has been implemented, and a t-statistic has been conducted. According to the statistics, COVID-19 significantly impacts the DSE mobile app adoption rate and the number of buy-sell transactions in Bangladesh's capital market. Compared to the total Beneficiary Owners account holders, only 3.75 percent of investors use the DSE mobile app for transactions. All of this indicates that the stock market in Bangladesh has only partial digitalization, and as a result, it does not provide a suitable platform for coping with negative occurrences. As a result, authorities must encourage the adoption of full-fledged digitizing by involving all stakeholders in the chain to deal with the sudden and long-lasting shock caused by pandemics such as the coronavirus epidemic in 2019.