Major stock exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region are falling, led by losses in Hong Kong, and investors are reassessing the impact of the Omicron mutation on economies, following the discovery of the first case of the coronavirus variant in China.
On Monday The United Kingdom has confirmed that at least one patient with the new mutation has died., while China reported the first case of Omicron.
At the same time, the Chinese province of Zhejiang, which is a center of processing, is facing its first outbreak of covid-19 this year, with hundreds of thousands of residents in quarantine and areas affected by the virus suspending operations, canceling flights and canceling events.
The province recorded 74 cases of local transmission with confirmed symptoms on December 12, according to official figures, almost double the 38 incidents of the previous day, bringing to 173 the total number of infections since the province began recording cases in the most recent its outbreak.
The outbreak in three cities in Zhejiang – Ningbo, Shaoxing and Hangzhou – is developing at a “relatively fast” pace, while the situation across the country is generally stable, Wu Lianggu, a member of the National Health Commission, said on Saturday.
The University of Oxford on Monday released results showing that two doses of AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines are significantly less effective in preventing Omicron disease than previous mutations in the virus.
Investors, meanwhile, are looking to tomorrow’s Federal Reserve decisions that will determine how quickly the US Federal Reserve will end its quantitative easing program and then launch its rate hike.
The two-day meeting of the US Federal Reserve starts today in the shadow of the data announced on Friday, which showed that inflation jumped to a high of 39 years in the US in November, reaching 6.8%. Analysts are now waiting for the US Federal Reserve to announce on Wednesday the fastest contraction in bond markets in the quantitative easing program launched in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. With the completion of the program in 2022, the central bank is expected to start raising interest rates at the end of the first half of the year or even earlier to deal with high inflation.
In this climate, the Hang Seng index at Hong Kong records the largest losses, down 1.27%. The tech industry is in the red, with Alibaba down 1.65% and Tencent down more than 1%. JD is down more than 2%, while the Hang Seng Technology Index is slipping by about 2%.
Shares of social media giant Weibo are down 9% as China cyberspace regulator says it has fined the company’s administrator 3 million yuan ($ 471,151). Since its debut in Hong Kong last week, the stock has lost more than 10%.
In addition, the Chinese telecommunications operator China Mobile announced that it had received approval from regulators for a secondary listing in Shanghai, to offer up to 845.87 million shares.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite loses 0.6%, while the Shenzen index falls by 0.5%.
In Japan The Nikkei 225 is down 0.48%, while the Topix remains virtually unchanged. In Taiwan, the Taiex is down 1%.
In South Korea, Kospi loses 0.65%, with the technology sector recording heavy losses here as well. SLG Electronics loses 2.61%.
In Australia the S & P / ASX 200 is moving marginally downwards.
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I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
