Impact of Order Announcements on Share Prices: A Post-COVID-19 Study of Selected Indian Infrastructure Development Companies

Abstract

This paper investigates the share price responses of 15 Indian infrastructure development companies to major order announcements in the post-COVID-19 era. Unlike most event studies that concentrate on short horizons, we employ three distinct windows:

1. Pre-Event (−200 to −100) – to detect early information leakage or anticipation,
2. Short-Window (−30 to +30) – to capture immediate market reactions,
3. Long post-event (000 to +250) – to observe extended performance following the announcements.

Using Historical daily price data from www.investing.com and from the official website of the Bombay stock exchange, we compute returns, estimate normal (expected) returns using a mean-adjusted approach, and derive Abnormal Returns (AR) and Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CAR). Our findings indicate minimal abnormal returns well before the announcements, a moderate positive jump in the short-window, and a more pronounced sustained gain over the post-event period.

Individual analyses of each company’s CAR confirm that although the direction of the effect (positive, on average) is consistent, the magnitude varies due to factors such as project scale, sector-specific dynamics, and macroeconomic conditions. These results suggest that infrastructure firms benefit not only from the immediate “news shock” upon announcement but also from ongoing investor confidence as order details and execution milestones become clear.