HSI Falls Sharply As New Virus Scare Jolts Asia

Hong Kong shares finished Tuesday with deep losses following recent gains and as traders grow concerned about rising infections in some parts of Asia that have fuelled talk of a second wave of coronavirus.

The Hang Seng Index fell 1.5 percent, to 24,245.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index eased 0.1 percent, to 2,891 but the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 0.3 percent, to 1,810.

Sydney, Mumbai, Taipei, Singapore and Jakarta were all down more than 1 percent, while Tokyo fell 0.1 percent.

Seoul eased 0.7 percent and Manila was off 0.3 percent, though there were gains in Wellington and Bangkok.

The news of new outbreaks in Wuhan and South Korea jolted confidence on trading floors and weighed on regional markets.

The losses come after a healthy rally across equity markets from troughs reached in March as the disease began to take hold around the world and forced nations to lock down, effectively closing the global economy and pushing it into an expected recession.

And, while there are forecasts that growth will bounce back, there is discussion over how quickly that will happen.

"It's well and good to say 'OK, we've contained the disease', but how long does the recession last?" Chris Rands, at Nikko Asset Management, said.

"Typically when you look at unemployment spikes they take years to fix, they don't fix themselves in three months."

Oil prices rose, taking some joy from news that Saudi Arabia would slash an extra million barrels per day from its June output, leaving it with just short of 7.5 million, which ANZ said would be the lowest since 2002. (AFP)