The Buncefield oil depot explosion: where there's smoke, there's (stock market) fire?

Abstract

This study examines the stock market response to the Buncefield oil depot explosion in 2005. Like previous studies on technological disasters, we find an adverse effect on security prices. However, average abnormal return is only −0.58% for the four oil firms involved in the accident; that is, the explosion did not throw shareholders into panic selling.