Abstract
In this study, the effects of cases and deaths caused from coronavirus, as well as exchange rate and interest rate on Borsa İstanbul indices between 17.03.2020-02.04.2021 are examined by using empirical methods that consider multiple structural breaks. Furthermore, the effect of the pandemic on the world's major stock markets and BIST indices is also analyzed graphically. The graphical analysis demonstrates that the reactions of the major stock markets to the pandemic are generally similar, and the world stock markets were surprisingly little affected by this unprecedented chaotic situation in history, except for the first periods of the pandemic. Unlike other studies, in this study, important structural break dates in the Covid-19 related case and death data were found by multiple structural break unit root analysis proposed Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. (2009) and empirical evidence for the course of the pandemic is presented in Turkey. Maki (2012) Cointegration Test performed afterwards demonstrates that there is a long-term relationship between the variables. According to the results obtained from the FMOLS estimator, the effects of increases both in dollar exchange rate (representing, the exchange rate) and in BIST overnight repo interest rate (representing, the interest rate) on entire of BIST indices are negative and generally significant. A 1% increase in the dollar exchange rate decreases the BIST-100 index by approximately 0.89%, while a 1% increase in BIST overnight repo interest rates decreases the BIST-100 index by approximately 0.10%. Although the effect of percentage changes in the number of patients and deaths caused by coronavirus on BIST indices is positive, the results are statistically insignificant. Therefore, the results emphasize that priority policy implementations should be on the axis of exchange rate and interest.