G. Vidya Bai

Investors invest in a foreign market to reap the benefits of currency differences. The change in the value of underlying assets affects these hedged funds and, at the same time, restricts investors from higher return possible in unhedged funds. This study aims to examine the performance of most actively traded shares in Exchange Traded Fund and any influence, along with tracking the information from the index. This study also analyzes the currency fluctuation and its impact on returns and volatility of ETF and index. The equity ETF, which tracks NASDAQ (NDX 100), is chosen for the study, and the data analysis is carried out using statistical methods such as correlation, regression, and GARCH model. The study utilizes the currency rate data from 2013 to 2018 of USD, GBP, and INR and examines its effect on the NDX (NASDAQ). The study emphasizes whether the ETF as a basket of securities is insensitive to currency rate fluctuations. It is found that the response of ETF to the currency movements is likely due to its underlying index. The study concludes that Motilal Oswal shares in NASDAQ 100 ETF are highly sensitive to the NDX 100 movements; thus, there is no direct impact between ETF and index performance through exchange rate fluctuation.

Market turmoil caused by COVID-19 has weakened firms’ financial performance, highlighting the prominence of sustainable business practices by incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance performance and their disclosure. Though past studies investigated COVID-19’s impact on firm performance, there is consensus on the role of firms’ Environmental, Social, and Governance disclosures between firm performance and the pandemic. With this view, the study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on firms’ financial performance with the moderating role of Environmental, Social, and Governance performance disclosure. To do so, the study retrieved data of Nifty 500 index companies from the Bloomberg database for a sample period ranging from 2016 to 2022. To this end, the study performed the fixed-effect regression and GMM model. The findings reveal a significant negative impact of the pandemic on Return on Assets (β =-4.812), Return on Equity (β =–.675), and Earnings Per Share (β = –2.875), highlighting the unfavorable effect of the pandemic on firm performance. Further results showed that firms’ Environmental, Social, and Governance performance disclosure positively moderates the connection between COVID-19 and Return on Assets (β = 3.231), Return on Equity (β = 0.032), and Earnings Per Share (β = 1.523), respectively. This indicates that companies actively involved in Environmental, Social, and Governance disclosure are less likely to suffer during the pandemic in terms of financial performance due to their ESG disclosures.