Oil price uncertainty and Chinese stock returns: New evidence from the oil volatility index

- We find that oil price shocks positively affect Chinese stock returns.
- There is evidence to indicate that the CBOE crude oil volatility index (OVX) shocks have significant negative effects on the Chinese stock returns while realized volatility shocks have insignificant effects.
- These results are more significant after the recent financial crisis.

This paper investigates the impact of oil price shocks and oil price volatility shocks on the Chinese stock market index and five sector returns. In addition to the realized volatility, the paper uses the CBOE crude oil volatility index (OVX) to proxy for the oil price volatility. The empirical results suggest that oil price shocks positively affect Chinese stock returns. More importantly, evidence indicates that the OVX shocks have significant and negative effects on the Chinese stock market while the impact of realized volatility shocks is negligible, especially after the recent financial crisis.