Hong Kong Equity markets collapsed Monday as the rapidly spreading coronavirus fans fears over the global economy, while a crash in oil prices added to the panic with energy firms taking a hammering and wiping hundreds of billions off valuations. As the deadly disease claims more lives around the world, dealers are fleeing out of riskier assets and into safe havens, sending gold and the yen surging and pushing US Treasury yields to new record lows. While governments and central banks have unleashed or prepared to roll out stimulus measures, the spread of COVID-19 is putting a huge strain on economies and stoking concerns of a worldwide recession. Trading floors were a sea of red, with Tokyo and Manila plunging more than five percent, while Hong Kong dived 3.6 percent. Sydney shed 7.3 percent. Mumbai, Taipei, Singapore, Seoul, Jakarta and Wellington were more than three percent down, Shanghai shed 2.5 percent and Bangkok gave up 6.8 percent. The losses tracked sharp falls in Europe and Wall Street on Friday. Driving the declines was a ferocious sell-off in the oil markets, sparked by top exporter Saudi Arabia slashing prices—in some cases to unprecedented levels—after a bust-up with Russia over production.—AFP
