Shanghai: Chinese stocks collapsed on Monday with hundreds of firms plunging by the maximum 10 per cent as investors got their first chance in more than a week to react to a barrage of bad news from the spiralling coronavirus outbreak.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended the morning session down 8.13 per cent, or 241.87 points, at 2,734.66, while the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, was down 8.30 per cent, or 145.78 points, to 1,611.04. Hong Kong went into the break 0.09 per cent, or 23.78 points, up at 26,336.41 on bargain-buying after being battered last week.
The scale of the plunge was remarkable even by the standards of China’s notoriously volatile share markets, indicating deep concern over the economic impact of the epidemic, which has now killed more than people SARS in 2003.
The last time Chinese indices had plunged in excess of eight per cent in a day was when an equities bubble popped nearly five years ago. “Investor panic quickly spread across the board and will be dominating the market over the short term,” said Yang Delong, chief economist at First Seafront Fund.
More than 2,600 stocks fell by the 10 per cent daily limit, according to Bloomberg financial data. The yuan also weakened more than 1.5 per cent to around 7.02 per dollar.
