AP, Tokyo :
Shares rebounded in Asia on Friday after an early sell-off, though Tokyo’s benchmark declined as investors reacted to reports of a growing number of cases of a new virus in Japan and China.
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.6% to finish at 23,659.14. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 7,130.20. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.5% to 2,244.82 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.4% to 27,847.53. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3% to 2,915.83.
India’s Sensex inched down 0.1% to 41,422.35. Shares were higher in Taiwan but mixed in Southeast Asia.
Investors had largely set aside worries about the economic impact of the virus outbreak for the past two weeks. Markets rallied this week partly when the number of new cases appeared to be slowing. But those hopes were dashed by sharp increases in both the number of cases and newly reported deaths Thursday after the hardest-hit province of Hubei began counting doctors’ diagnoses without waiting for confirmation laboratory results in hopes of getting patients treated faster.
In Japan, concern rose after the government reported another case, a Japanese man in his 70s, a day after it counted its first death from the virus. Japan now has 252 confirmed cases, including 218 from a cruise ship that has been quarantined in Yokohama.
Shares rebounded in Asia on Friday after an early sell-off, though Tokyo’s benchmark declined as investors reacted to reports of a growing number of cases of a new virus in Japan and China.
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.6% to finish at 23,659.14. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 7,130.20. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.5% to 2,244.82 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.4% to 27,847.53. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3% to 2,915.83.
India’s Sensex inched down 0.1% to 41,422.35. Shares were higher in Taiwan but mixed in Southeast Asia.
Investors had largely set aside worries about the economic impact of the virus outbreak for the past two weeks. Markets rallied this week partly when the number of new cases appeared to be slowing. But those hopes were dashed by sharp increases in both the number of cases and newly reported deaths Thursday after the hardest-hit province of Hubei began counting doctors’ diagnoses without waiting for confirmation laboratory results in hopes of getting patients treated faster.
In Japan, concern rose after the government reported another case, a Japanese man in his 70s, a day after it counted its first death from the virus. Japan now has 252 confirmed cases, including 218 from a cruise ship that has been quarantined in Yokohama.
