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The study aims to find out the impact of financial inclusion and financial development on financial stability using panel data from eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher prepared two indicators of financial inclusion and governance to find out the impact of financial development on the relationship between financial inclusion and financial stability. Data on financial inclusion was obtained from the International Monetary Fund, data on financial development and financial stability were obtained from the World Bank.

The results of the fixed and random effect methods show that financial inclusion has a significant positive effect on financial stability. Additionally, financial development represents a moderating variable in the significant positive effect on the relationship between financial inclusion and stability in the MENA countries.

The current study suffers from some limitations that researchers must be aware of in future research. First, there is an inability to determine qualitative aspects such as time and cost when designing a composite indicator of financial inclusion. Second, due to limited data, we used only eight countries from the MENA. It is suggested to expand the sample to include other countries.

This paper contributes to the related literature between financial inclusion and financial stability by confirming or denying the results of previous studies. Also, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the only one that explains the role of financial development in the relationship between financial inclusion and stability in MENA countries, using a composite index to calculate financial inclusion. Finally, the study seeks to focus the attention of the government and policymakers to build a system of financial inclusion that leads to improving financial stability.

This study aims at testing efficiency of the Egyptian stock market at semi-strong level through exploring the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Egyptian stock returns.

The author applied the “Event Study” method that addresses the impact of a particular event or group of events on stock returns, from 12 September 2019 to 5 April 2020, choosing Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) 100 companies which constitute constitutes the highest-level 100 companies in terms of liquidity and activity.

The study found inefficiency of the Egyptian stock market at the semistrong level, as the declaration of the COVID-19 has a negative insignificant effect on stock returns, whether on the day of the declaration, before or after it, The underlying reasons for these results can be referred to the idea that can be explained that investors are noise trading when making their investment decisions.

There are two limitations to the interface of this paper. The first one is the short-term impact of COVID-19, using 141 days, and then it is not clear in the research the long-term impact of events related to the epidemic. Secondly, because the author deals with a short period term, the author does not test the characteristics of the company or any other major events that may affect the stock returns of the companies under study.

This adds to the finance literature on the impact of the COVID-19 announcement on stock returns in the context of African countries. The explanation of the interconnection of the COVID-19 announcement on stock returns in Egypt.