Asian stocks sink following U.S. sell-off amid coronavirus fears

Stocks
Tokyo, March 19, 2020 (dpa/NAN) Shares in Asian markets on Thursday fell sharply following another rout on Wall Street as the number of coronavirus infections continued to rise worldwide.
According to Korea’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, South Korea’s Kospi Index plummeted 8.39 per cent on the day as the number of new coronavirus infections in the country saw an uptick for the third straight day.
The centre added that the uptick resulted to 152 new cases recorded since the previous day.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 1.04 per cent after rising as much as 2.6 per cent in opening trade.
Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX200 index plunged 3.44 per cent, while the broader All Ordinaries index tumbled 3.79 per cent.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange closed down sharply by 5.83 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite index declined 0.98 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plummeted 2.61 per cent.
On Wednesday, Wall Street saw another day of heavy losses in spite new measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The S&P 500 dropped 5.18 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 6.3 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 4.7 per cent.(dpa/NAN)
YI/TA
Edited by Yahaya Isah/Tajudeen Atitebi