Asian stocks retreated on Friday amid renewed concern about the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak as cases increased outside of China.
Shares in Korea and Hong Kong saw the steepest losses, with more modest declines in Australia.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index fell 0.5 percent to 166.44, down 2.4 percent on the week.
Japanese stocks closed little changed, while those in China edged higher.
Traders were on tenterhooks this week amid a spike in infections outside China and a slew of fresh warnings from companies on the pathogen’s effects.
That is threatening gains that propelled global equities to a record high earlier this month and reigniting appetite for haven assets from US Treasuries to the US dollar.
“It may be a much longer road,” Dan Farley, chief investment officer of the investment solutions group at State Street Global Advisors, told Bloomberg TV in Sydney about the virus impact.
“We have to be very mindful that this is not an easily solvable issue and the impact on consumer demand for a number of different sectors is going to be something that we need to be watching out for,” he said.
Hong Kong stocks ended weaker on Friday to finish the week lower.
The Hang Seng Index closed 1.1 percent lower at 27,308.81, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.1 percent to 10,790.84 points.
China reported an uptick in new cases on Friday, although the rise in infections remained at its slowest pace since last month, a downward trend which the WHO has called encouraging.
In Hong Kong, authorities reported the first case of a police officer to have contracted the virus.
Despite broad risk sentiment stabilization earlier in the week, pockets of concern continue to be present across parts of Asia on the back of the outbreak concerns, dampening equity performance, IG Group PLC market strategist Jingyi Pan (潘婧怡) said in a report.
To cushion the economic impact of the outbreak, China has rolled out a raft of supportive measures, and expectations are running high for further policy easing.
As widely expected, the People’s Bank of China slashed a key benchmark rate this week and said it would extend credit, provide favorable loans or rates to firms involved in controlling the outbreak.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday said that it would speed up studying new fiscal, tax financial, insurance measures to support companies to counter the effects of the outbreak.
In Taipei, the TAIEX fell 0.33 percent to 11,686.35 to end the week 1 percent lower.
The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3 percent on Friday and rose 4.2 percent for the week.
Japan’s TOPIX was flat yesterday, while the Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 percent, bringing its weekly losses to 1.3 percent.
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.5 percent on Friday, down 3.6 percent for the week.
In India, the NIFTY 50 fell 0.4 percent on Friday and was down 0.3 percent for the week. The SENSEX also lost 0.4 percent on the day and fell 0.2 percent for the week.
The Philippines Stock Exchange Index on Friday slipped 0.6 percent, paring its weekly gains to 1.2 percent.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell 0.3 percent on Friday and was down 0.8 percent for the week.
Additional reporting by CNA and staff writer
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