Investors optimism about a possible slowing in the coronavirus pandemic faded, after China said on Wednesday that two people have died after reported no virus-related deaths on Tuesday for the first time since January. Meanwhile, the US has the most cases in the world and most of its states are under lockdown. New York, the epicentre of the outbreak in the US, saw its highest daily death toll of 731, as did the entire US, with 1,970 people dying on Tuesday. In the UK, 786 people died on Tuesday.
More than half of the planet's population is under lockdown, and governments and central banks have thrown massive fiscal and monetary stimulus at the virus, which has dragged the world into a recession. Globally, more than 1.4 million have been infected by the coronavirus so far while at least 81,000 lives have been taken, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University.
Several market participants pointed out that although the outbreak on mainland China was largely under control, economic disruption was likely to continue for a longer period of time as unemployment levels may be slow to normalize after many small businesses were forced into bankruptcy.
Developments on the global coronavirus pandemic likely continued to be the focus of investors, with stricter social distancing measures being implemented by countries regionally in recent days to curb the disease's spread.
Among blue chips, HSBC (5 HK) and Standard Chartered (2888 HK) both dropped 0.6% to HK$39.90 and HK$41.10, respectively. Index heavyweight Tencent (700 HK) decreased 0.7% to HK$385. Meanwhile, e-commerce giant Alibaba (9988 HK) fell 0.7% to HK$190.10. Insurers fell, with Ping An (2318 HK) and AIA (1299 HK) both shed 0.7% to HK$76.25 and HK$72.15, respectively.
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