HK Stock Ends With 2.6% Fall, US Dollar Soars

Hong Kong stocks suffered another loss on Thursday as massive stimulus and central bank financial support pledges fail to soothe global investors rocked by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Hang Seng Index slipped 2.6 percent, to 21,709.

Across the border, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 1 percent, to 2,702 while the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 0.3 percent, to 1,682.

Seoul tanked more than 8 percent, Singapore dived 4.5 percent and Sydney, Wellington and Bangkok lost more than 3 percent.

Tokyo ended down one percent, while Taipei and Jakarta crumbled more than 5 percent. Mumbai lost over 1 percent.

Manila plunged almost 25 percent after reopening following a two-day suspension prompted by the outbreak but it later bounced back to sit more than 13 percent down.

The sharp losses were in tandem with a surge in the US dollar as investors scrambled for cash to pay debts or just stash away.

The pound is now wallowing around its lowest levels since the mid-1980s, trading at HK$8.96. The greenback was up more than 6 percent against the Australian dollar and more than 3 percent on the South Korean won.

The US dollar hit a record high above 75 Indian rupees, while the New Zealand dollar and the Russian ruble lost more than 5 percent.

Australia's central bank became the latest to slash interest rates to a record low and pledging to pump billions into the financial system.

But Ryuta Otsuka, chief strategist at Toyo Securities, said: "Offering of liquidity by the [European] authorities supported morning trade, but that was short-lived as people don't know where the exit is from fears over the coronavirus, even though it seems like it is simply something like a bad kind of cold."

The latest rout in Asia followed another day of carnage on Wall Street, where the Dow ended down more than six percent and below 20,000 for the first time since 2017. (AFP)