Asian Markets Slide; KOSPI Plunges More Than 3% as New Virus Case Soar

By Alex Ho

Investing.com – Asian markets slid on Monday morning, with South Korea’s plunging more than 3% after the country raised its infectious-disease alert to the highest level after a 20-fold increase in cases.

China’s fell 0.3% by 10:42 PM ET (02:42 GMT), while the inched up 0.1%.

Hong Kong’s dropped 1.6%.

Japan’s dropped 0.4%.

South Korea’s plunged 3.2%. The number of infections in South Korea soared from just 30 to almost 800 in the past week, while at least seven people died from the virus.

The Bank of Korea will hold an emergency meeting this afternoon to discuss the virus impact, as some expect the central bank to reduce its benchmark rate to support the economy.

Meanwhile, the government is reviewing all possible measures, including an extra budget, Bloomberg reported citing local media.

The epidemic poses a “large concern that it will limit the trend of economic recovery started late last year,” First Vice Minister Kim Yong-beom said.

Kim noted that domestic consumption and exports to China have dropped due to the virus outbreak.

In other news, finance officials from the world’s 20 biggest economies on Saturday called for a coordinated response to the coronavirus outbreak, which the International Monetary Fund predicted would pull down China’s growth this year to 5.6% and cut 0.1% from global growth.

“But we are also looking at more dire scenarios where the spread of the virus continues for longer and more globally, and the growth consequences are more protracted,” said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.