Asia report: Shares hammered as virus sparks slowdown fears
Asian stocks were hammered again on Friday on growing fears the coronavirus epidemic would lead to a global economic slowdown.
Japanese shares were particularly hard hit with the Nikkei down 2.72% to close at 20,749.75 and the Topix index fell 2.92% to 1,471.46. Shares in Softbank Group plunging 6.07%.
The story across the region was equally grim with South Korea’s Kospi falling 2.16% to 2,040.22 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index down more than 2%.
In China, the Shanghai composite was down 1.21% to about 3,034.51 and the Shenzhen component 1.1% to 11,582.82.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 plunged 2.81% to close at 6,216.20. Sentiment was hit by news that retail turnover in January fell 0.3% month-on-month on a seasonally adjusted basis.
The Australian Bureau of Staistics said it expected the coronavirus outbreak to “impact aggregate retail trade estimates in coming months,” though there was “no apparent impact on any of the aggregate level data” in the data release for January.
Neil Wilson said the yen strengthened on its status as a safe haven as the currency moved to 105 against the dollar.
"We are starting to get into the territory where the Bank of Japan won’t like this at all we could see some intervention of sorts as we approach 104, which is possible as long as US (bonds) keep moving lower. A test of the 104 handle today is eminently possible," he said.