ANKARA: Stock exchanges in China and Hong Kong dove around 5% with a mixed closing in Asian markets, while Europe was in negative territory and US futures indicated a mixed opening.
China reported 2,125 coronavirus cases on Sunday and over 3,122 infections on Saturday, the highest daily figures since the Wuhan outbreak in December 2019, according to the National Health Commission.
Almost half of the cases were reported in China’s northeastern Jilin province, while investors are worried that the world’s second-largest economy would see a slowdown in its recovery.
Worries were also coupled with a fear that US-traded Chinese stocks could be delisted, leading to significant losses in both China and Hong Kong stock markets.
China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange plummeted 159 points, or 4.95%, to close the day at 3,063.
The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, was the worst performer in Asia, plummeting 1,116 points, or 5.72%, to 18,415.
The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, was down 47 points, or 1.41%, to 3,309 points.India’s Sensex benchmark lost 709 points, or 1.26%, to 55,776.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange, on the other hand, rose 38 points, or 0.15%, to close at 25,346 points. The Singapore index added 4 points, or 0.12%, to end the day at 3,236.
In Europe, the rising tension of Russia’s war on Ukraine negatively affected the markets where indices were down around 1% apiece on mid-day.
STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was down 6.22 points, or 1.42%, to 430.15 points at 1105GMT.
London’s FTSE 100 decreased 68 points, or 0.95%, to 7,125, while Germany’s DAX 30 lost 214 points, or 1.54%, to 13,720.
France’s CAC 40 was down 103 points, or 1.63%, to 6,266 and Italy’s FTSE MIB decreased 203 points, or 0.87%, to 23,228.
Spain’s IBEX 35 dropped 55 points, or 0.67%, to 8,179. In the US, futures indicated a mixed opening for American indices on Tuesday. The Dow Jones futures were down 8 points, or less than 0.1%, to 32,830 at the time.
The S&P futures rose 6 points, or 0.15%, to 4,170, while the Nasdaq futures added 39 points, or 0.3%, to 13,083.