Covid-19 that emerged in Wuhan, China and spread to Malaysia starting from 25th January 2020 has changed people’s lives and impacted the world’s economy, including the stock markets. The study investigates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the stock returns in Malaysia by using a sample of thirty (30) constituents of FBM KLCI. The study utilises Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 new cases, death cases, cumulative cases, and cumulative death cases, as well as Singapore new cases and death cases. The impact is observed from 31st December 2019 until 9th June 2020 using the panel regression model. The results show a significant positive but small impact of Covid-19 variables on the stocks’ returns except for Singapore daily cases and death cases, which were negative. The study also identifies that the Malaysian stock market is more sensitive to Covid-19 local death cases during the pandemic.

Financial development is essential in influencing a country's economic environment. ASEAN countries exhibit varying degrees of financial sector maturity, ranging from highly developed to less develop. Nevertheless, its banking sectors are relatively well-developed. The article aims to examine the impact of financial development on economic growth and income inequality in five ASEAN countries. The study examines a bank-based financial system using the ratioof domestic credit to the private sector to GDP as a measure of financial development. The study utilises panel data regression analysis spanning from 1990 to 2020. Other economic drivers included in the models as control variables are human capital, labour force growth rate, government expenditure, physical capital, inflation, and trade openness. The findings of this study suggest that financial development in five ASEAN countries has a significant negative relationship with economic growth while positively related to income disparity This study uncovers adverse outcomes on the impact of financial development, highlighting the need for legislative reform to improve the efficiency of the banking sector in delivering financial services to all societal groups.

Malaysia’s economic growth has been rising steadily over the years and one of the main contributors is the insurance sector. The literature has recorded mixed findings on the relationship between insurance and economic growth. This paper examines the relationship between the insurance sector and economic growth in Malaysia over an extended period of 1990-2021. This paper uses three proxies for the insurance sector i.e. life insurance premiums, nonlife insurance premiums, and total insurance premiums. The Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Error Correction Model (ECM) approaches are employed to achieve the objective. While controlling for foreign direct investment, export, and import, this paper found that there is a positive long-run relationship between non-life insurance premiums and economic growth. Conversely, a negative short-run relationship is observed between life insurance premiums and economic growth. The total insurance premium has a negative short-run relationship with economic growth yet is insignificant for the long-run. The non-life insurance sector has a larger contribution compared to life insurance on Malaysia's economic growth as the market depends more on capital formation and investments, particularly in infrastructure, real estate, and capital markets. The insurance sector provides financial expansion in terms of payment for protection which results in an economic boost.