The coronavirus cases in Iran, Japan, South Korea, and Italy climbed sharply. It darkened the outlook for global economic expansions. Thus, on Monday, global stock markets turned gloomy.
Early on, European stocks booked losses. After a fourth victim of the outbreak, Italy dropped as much as 4%. It led to a virtual lockdown in some parts of the industrial north.
Since 2016, it left Milan set for its worst day. Following the death of a fifth patient, the FTSE MIB was last down by 5.1%.
While the FTSE 100 slipped 2.5%, Both France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX index shed nearly 4%. The slip of FTSE 100 wiped off at least $350 billion worth of London’s market value. The index last stood with a 3.4% loss.
In Asia, on Monday, KOSPI’s south Korea registered a 3.9% fall. It was after the country’s high alert announcement. The number of deaths in the country surged to seven and inched up to 763.
New Zealand fell around 1.8%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also fell by 2.25%. CSI300 index, China’s blue-chip, ended the session by 0.4% weaker.
The MSCI’s broadest index had a poor performance. It pushed the Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down by 1.9%. Since early February its lowest level. Thus, in Japan, stock trading took a breather for a public holiday.
Stock Markets and Coronavirus
Fears over the coronavirus potentially are turning into a pandemic. That fear of epidemic carries a fatal and disruptive impact on world growth. By its side, it prompts stock markets players to abandon equities and seek safe-haven assets. Thus, a lackluster session came.
Elwin de Groot is head of macro strategy. He said that everybody sees that this can be another led down for the economy. Moreover, they were in quite a fragile state to start with.
He added that it could be another step towards the recession in more countries.
Since July 2016, the move resulted in the 10-year US Treasury yield hitting 1.377% to mark its lowest. Meanwhile, the 30-year Treasury yield posted a new record low of 1.873%.
Shane Oliver is the chief economist. According to him, there is a lot of bad news on the coronavirus front, with the total number of news cases rising.
In China, 77,150 cases have been reported, while the virus has now claimed the lives of 2,592 people. For now, the virus has spread to some 28 territories and countries.
Let’s hope that the situation will get better.