Volatility transmission within financial markets during the COVID-19 pandemic: are faith-based investors well off in Tunisia?

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the risk-return and volatility spillover within the Tunisian stock market during the COVID-19 pandemic analyzing both the Islamic and conventional stocks’ performance. Design/methodology/approach Both symmetric (GARCH and GARCH-M) and asymmetric (Threshold GARCH and Exponential GARCH) models are used to analyze the market returns and volatility response. Standard and Poor’s (S&P) index has been used to test both the Islamic and conventional stocks within the Tunisian stock market. Findings The findings suggest that both Tunisia Islamic and conventional stock markets are highly persistent; however, the conventional stock index showed a negative return spillover on the Islamic stocks during the pandemic. The conventional stock index has also shown a higher exposure to risk for a lower amount of return, and evidence of potential diversification benefit between both indexes was found during the pandemic, whereas the Islamic market showed a positive leverage effect, indicating a positive correlation between past return and future return; the conventional index implied a negative leverage effect. Originality/value The value of this paper emerges in studying three main aspects that are specific to the Tunisian stock market. This includes COVID-19 effect of return spillovers, volatility transmission across both conventional and Islamic stock market within the local financial market.