In India, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic-induced country-wide regulatory lockdown and consequential supply-chain disruptions and market instability have all posed serious challenges before the regulators and policymakers. Amid the pandemic, the stock market showed return volatilities primarily due to the unexpected investors’ behaviour. One of the behavioural biases is herding, which has the power to wreck the market equilibrium and shatter the market efficiency. Given that the pandemic has generated unprecedented spirals of uncertainties across the globe, thereby creating interruptions in the pattern of stock market investment decisions, this study examined the herding behaviour of 54 stocks of banking and financial services sectors listed in the national stock exchange. In the quantile regression framework, the study provides evidence of the presence of herding for public sector banking and financial services under the bull market conditions during the pandemic in the 90th quantile of the return distribution. This finding has implications for the mispricing of financial assets in these sectors. So, the study suggests removing information asymmetry among the market participants and devising policy initiatives for ensuring market stability.

在印度，冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 大流行引发的全国监管封锁以及随之而来的供应链中断和市场不稳定都给监管机构和政策制定者带来了严峻挑战。在大流行中，股市表现出回报波动主要是由于投资者的意外行为。行为偏差之一是羊群效应，它有能力破坏市场均衡并破坏市场效率。鉴于大流行在全球范围内产生了前所未有的不确定性螺旋，从而中断了股市投资决策的模式，本研究调查了在国家证券交易所上市的银行和金融服务行业的 54 只股票的羊群行为。在分位数回归框架中，该研究提供了证据，证明在大流行期间的牛市条件下，在回报分布的第 90 分位数中，公共部门银行和金融服务存在羊群效应。这一发现对这些部门中金融资产的错误定价具有影响。因此，该研究建议消除市场参与者之间的信息不对称，并制定政策举措以确保市场稳定。