In Search of Safe Havens during Market Uncertainties: Evidence from African Stock Markets

In Search of Safe Havens during Market Uncertainties: Evidence from African Stock Markets

(Pages 238-248)

Victoria Opoku^a,c, Albert A. Agyemang-Badu^b,c,* and Fernando Olmedo Gallardo^c
^aDepartment of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Energy and Natural Resources, P. O. Box 214, Sunyani, Ghana.
^bDepartment of Accounting and Finance, Spiritan University College, P. O. Box 111, Ejisu–Ashanti, Ghana.
^cFacultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Francisco Tomás y Valiente 5, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55365/1923.x2024.22.26

Abstract:

This paper examines the safe haven potential of global commodities and bitcoin, the leading digital currency, amid global crises. Applying a DCC-GARCH and the model proposed by Baur and McDermott (2010), we specifically investigate the safe haven abilities of some global commodities and the bitcoin against African equities during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine Conflict. Empirical findings indicate that alternative assets exist that play a safe haven role for investors in African equities during global crises. Overall, gold, cocoa, and coffee have proven to be good safe haven commodities for investors with exposure to most of the major African equity markets. However, the safe haven potential of bitcoin is limited in African stock markets.

Keywords:

African stocks, Bitcoin, COVID-19, Global crisis, Gold, Safe haven asset.

JEL:

C32, G10, G11, G15.

How to Cite:

Victoria Opoku, Albert A. Agyemang-Badu and Fernando Olmedo Gallardo. In Search of Safe Havens during Market Uncertainties: Evidence from African Stock Markets. [ref]: vol.22.2024. available at: https://refpress.org/ref-vol22-a26/

Licensee REF Press
This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.