Coronavirus: Asian stocks volatile as outbreak fears spread
Asian stocks plunged overnight following the biggest US and London stock market drops in decades as global panic over the spread of coronavirus increased.
Japan’s Nikkei is down 6.08 per cent this morning, after dropping as much as 10 per cent overnight.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 2.82 per cent, after earlier suffering its steepest drop since 2008, and the Shanghai composite has fallen 1.23 per cent.
“Overnight there was huge volatility in Asian stock markets as some indices saw their biggest daily percentage declines since the financial crisis,” CMC Markets analyst David Madden said.
“But the equity benchmarks have recouped much of their losses,” he added.
Yesterday the FTSE 100 suffered its biggest one-day fall since 1987 as it plunged 10.87 per cent on deepening coronavirus fears.
US stocks also plummeted prompting the New York Federal Reserve to pledge $1.5 trillion for short-term lending markets.
However, the S&P 500 closed down 9.51 per cent, the Dow Jones finished 9.99 per cent down and the Nasdaq fell 9.43 per cent.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s decision to block travel from most EU countries to the US due to the spread of coronavirus saw European stocks suffer their worst day ever.
Yesterday the extent of the risk posed by coronavirus began to emerge, as Boris Johnson warned the British public that as many as 10,000 people could already be infected with the virus and that the peak of the disease is weeks away.
At a press conference after trading ended in the City, the Prime Minister said that the outbreak is the “worst public health crisis for a generation” and warned that “many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time”.