INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
World share markets fought to regain their footing on Friday as investors clutched at hopes that China could contain the coronavirus, even
as headlines spoke of more cases and deaths, travel bans, evacuations and factory shutdowns.
Europe opened 0.3 per cent higher following a
bounce in Tokyo, but did little to repair what has been the most turbulent and costly week for many markets since August.
The World Health
Organization on Thursday labelled the virus a global emergency.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said the greatest worry
was the potential for the virus to infect countries with weaker health systems, though his praise for China's response seemed to steady
markets.
MSCI's broadest index of of world shares got back to flat
Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended their fall, however, dropping 0.4 per cent, and appeared set for their worst weekly loss in a
Thursday's 2.3 per cent dive was the sharpest one-day loss in six months.
Japan's Nikkei bounced 1 per cent, but was off 2.6 per cent
Hong Kong's Hang Seng drifted 0.3 per cent lower and has shed 9 per cent in two weeks
Korea's Kospi had its worst week in 15 months, losing 5.6 per cent.
"The coronavirus is outweighing everything else," said Francesca
Fornasari, head of currency solutions at Insight Investments.
"We have seen quite a position unwind and whatever is coming out in terms of
data is for the period when the virus hadn't become quite such a big issue."
WALL STREET SET TO SLIPWall Street's S-P 500 futures turned
red again in Europe, having rebounded as much 0.5 per cent overnight.
It had been supported by surveys showing Chinese manufacturing
activity came in much as expected in January while services actually firmed, though this was likely before the virus took full hold.
Indeed,
reports that some Chinese provinces were asking companies not to re-start until Feb
10 after the New Year holiday suggested activity would take a hard knock this month.
"Some shorts covered after the director gave the WHO's
stamp of approval to China's aggressive containment effort," said Stephen Innes, Asia Pacific market strategist at AxiCorp.
"For now, the
market's risk lights have shifted from flickering on red to a steady shade of amber."
Sentiment received a boost when Amazon's sales
blew past forecasts and sent its stock soaring 11 per cent after hours, adding over $100 billion in market value.
Still, the flow of news on
the virus remained bleak with China's Hubei province reporting deaths from the disease had risen by 42 to 204 as of the end of Jan
30.
More airlines curtailed flights into and out of China and companies temporarily closed operations, while Washington told citizens not to
travel to any part of China.
JPMorgan shaved its forecast for global growth by 0.3 per cent points for this quarter.
"Based on the patterns
observed from other epidemics, we assume that the outbreak will likely run its course over 2-3 months, meaning the hit to activity happens
in the current quarter," JPMorgan analysts said in a note.
"Also in line with historical experience, we expect a full recovery to
follow."
STERLING RISINGSafe-haven bonds were well bid, with yields on US 10-year Treasuries down 9 basis points for the week so far and
near four-month lows.
The yield curve between three-month bills and 10-year notes has inverted twice this week, a bearish economic
signal.
In currencies, sterling extended gains after jumping on Thursday when the Bank of England confounded market expectations by not
getting anywhere near an interest rate cut.
The pound was last at $1.313898, a relatively solid performance given that Friday is the day the
UK officially leaves the European Union after years of political turmoil.
The dollar took a knock overnight when data showed the US economy
had grown at its slowest annual pace in three years and personal consumption weakened sharply.
Yet it was up a fraction on the yen on Friday
at 109.03 and stronger on the euro at $1.1016.
Most of the action this week has been nervous investors selling emerging currencies for
dollars and yen, leaving the majors little changed against each other.
Spot gold was only just up for the week at $1,573.72 per ounce,
having failed to get much of a safe-haven bid as a range of other commodities, from copper to soy beans, were hammered by worries over
Chinese demand.
Oil bounced on short covering, after hitting its lowest in three months as the global spread of the coronavirus threatened
to curb demand for fuel.
US crude regained 89 cents to $53.03 a barrel, while Brent crude futures rose 83 cents to $59.12.
They are down
almost 10 per cent on the month though, despite the spike at the start of the month caused by the US killing of Iran's top military