China, Hong Kong stocks drop as coronavirus fears deepen

China Resources Gas

25/02/2020 04:45

* SSEC -2%, CSI300 -1.6%, HSI -0.1%, HSCE -0.3%
    * Wall Street slumps as infections spread beyond China
    * Epicentre Hubei records new cases; national tally falls

    SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Chinese stocks
dropped the most in three weeks on Tuesday, as worries deepened
a rapidly spreading coronavirus could become a global pandemic
and deal a heavy blow to the global economic growth.
    
** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index  .SSEC  was
down 2% to 2,970.63, while the blue-chip CSI300 index  .CSI300 
fell 1.6%. Earlier in the session, both indexes dropped nearly
3%, their biggest intraday percentage fall since Feb. 3.
    
** CSI300's financial sector sub-index  .CSI300FS  fell 1.4%,
the consumer staples sector  .CSI000912  lost 0.9%, the real
estate index  .CSI000952  edged up 0.1% and healthcare shares
 .CSI300HC  fell 0.2%.
    
** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong  .HSCE  fell 0.3%, while
the Hang Seng Index  .HSI  was down 0.1% to 26,799.14.
    
** The smaller Shenzhen index  .SZSC  and the start-up board
ChiNext Composite index  .CNT  were both weaker by about 2%. The
start-up board tanked as much as 4.1%.
    
** The virus death toll climbed to seven in Italy on Monday and
several Middle East countries were dealing with their first
infections.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2AO07M
    
** The surge of cases outside mainland China triggered sharp
falls in global markets as investors fled to safe havens. On
Monday, European equity markets suffered their biggest slump
since mid-2016, gold soared to a seven-year high and oil tumbled
4%.
    
** The Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 posted their biggest
one-day percentage drops in over two years and Nasdaq had one of
its worst days since December 2018.  .N 
    
** A-shares are not immune to this shock in global markets,
Guosheng Securities said in report. The outbreak within China
will also hurt domestic economic growth and corporate earnings,
AJ Securities noted in a report.
    
** China reported a rise in new virus cases in Hubei, the
epicentre of the outbreak, on Tuesday, while the rest of the
country saw a fourth-straight day of declines.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2AP0AE
    
** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  edged down 0.1%, while Japan's Nikkei index
 .N225  dropped 3.3%.
    
** The yuan  CNY=CFXS  was 0.21% stronger at 7.0132 per U.S.
dollar at 0342 GMT.
    
** The largest percentage losers in the Shanghai index were
Jiangsu Boxin Investing & Holdings Co Ltd  600083.SS , down 10%,
followed by Lushang Health Industry Development Co Ltd
 600223.SS , losing 9.1%, and Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics Co
Ltd  600460.SS , down by 8.5%.
    
** As of 0343 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of
27.16% over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.  .HSCAHPI 
    
** The Shanghai stock index is below its 50-day moving average
and above its 200-day moving average.

 (Reporting by Luoyan Liu and Noah Sin; Editing by Subhranshu
Sahu)
 ((luoyan.liu@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
luoyan.liu.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))