Abstract
The spread of COVID-19 increased general interest in the effects of pandemics on stock markets. We believe it is interesting to analyze emerging countries due to their role in future economies. The announcement of the H1N1 and COVID-19 pandemics instigated observable effects on the stock market. Our goal is to measure and compare the effects of these announcements, specifically for the BRIC bloc, using the event study method. We find evidence that these stock markets exhibited more negative abnormal returns at the announcement of COVID-19 than at the announcement of H1N1. However, Russia and China seem to cope better with COVID-19, having already experienced H1N1. Due to the possibility of a new pandemic and for the sake of the future participation of emerging countries, it is recommended to deepen this line of research.