By Justin Pei
Rochester – As the coronavirus continues to worsen, leaving hundreds dead and thousands more sickened, the Chinese stock market is bearing the effects of the pandemic. On Monday, China’s benchmark stock index fell as much as 9.1%- the worst in more than a decade.
Bloomberg estimates that 3,257 stocks are falling daily. Additionally, the Yuan has slumped to a 7-week low. China’s markets have been closed since Jan 23 as part of an extended Lunar New Year holiday to curb the outbreak and is set to reopen on Monday.
In an effort to stabilize the economy, the People’s Bank of China announced Sunday that it will inject 1.2 trillion Yuan ($173 billion) into the market through short term bond repurchase agreements. A move it said was to “maintain reasonable and abundant liquidity of the banking system and stable operation of the currency market during the special period of epidemic prevention and control.”
Other markets in Asia are also lower as a result. In Japan, which has 20 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the Nikkei 225 (N225) fell 1.01%.
In the United States, stocks were actually higher.The Dow gained 275 points, or about 0.9%, the S&P 500 rose by nearly 1%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.4%.
