Coronavirus outbreak started in China and reached most of the countries. Italy has the largest number of confirmed cases outside of China. The country’s health care system is struggling to treat all the patients. Stock exchanges around the globe are trying to deal with problems. For example, Philippine Stock Exchange decided to suspend trading. On March 18, stock markets across the Asia Pacific region mostly fell in another day of turbulent trade.
For example, South Korea’s Kospi index saw significant losses and the index fell 4.86% to close at 1,591.20. Meanwhile, another South Korean index Kosdaq slipped 5.75% to 485.14.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 6.43% to close at 4.953.20. It is not surprising as major sectors fell on Wednesday.
Mainland Chinese saw significant losses as the Shanghai composite dropped 1.83% to about 2,728.76. At the same time, the Shenzhen component fell 1.7% to 10,029.57. The Shenzhen composite declined 1.554% to around 1,678.25.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 3.49% as of its final hour of trading.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index fell 1.68% to close at 16,726.55. Meanwhile, the Topix index ended its trading day 0.19% higher at 1,270.84.
Top economies and markets
In this situation, what may support the stock markets are the governments of the richest countries. They have the opportunity to soften the blow, otherwise markets may continue to fall in the following days as well. Stocks play an important role and governments should pay more attention to the markets.
Hopefully, the Trump administration is weighing a fiscal stimulus package worth anywhere from $850 billion to more than $1 trillion. Furthermore, some of the funds may be used to provide financial assistance to citizens.
Top economies such as U.K.,Spain, France and Germany also plan to boost the local economy. Governments of other countries should create their own plans on how to soften the economic impact.
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