We decipher
The coronavirus epidemic, which has already claimed 361 lives in China, has had significant financial repercussions in the country on Monday. Like the one in Shanghai, which completely unscrewed, the stock exchanges in mainland China recorded their largest decline since the stock market crisis of summer 2015, but these upheavals were relatively expected.
Previously closed markets
Due to the holidays linked to the Chinese New Year, the country's markets had indeed been closed for ten days. On the spot, the epidemic had therefore not yet had a real financial impact. Hence the very strong variations on Monday concerning companies very affected by the coronavirus. This was the case, for example, for the major airlines China Eastern and China Southern whose stock market values collapsed by more than 10%. The day was also tough for Foxconn, one of the main suppliers of the giant Apple, which suffers from factory closings.
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However, China had tried to limit the damage upstream. The authorities of the country had thus pushed back the opening of the markets a little and supported the economy financially by injecting money.
Concerns for growth
But the health crisis should well be accompanied by enormous consequences on growth because of the factories and stores stopped. However, the misfortune is not yet experienced by all Chinese companies. The brands that sell masks or equipment for protection against coronavirus have gone up on the Chinese Stock Exchange.