Corona topples stocks .. the world's stock exchanges in red and Saudi Arabia are the largest losers in the region

Most of the major stock exchanges in the Gulf retreated today, Wednesday, as the Saudi Stock Exchange suffered the largest losses similar to the decline in global stocks, with fears of the spread of the Corona virus after the United States warned its citizens on Tuesday and invited them to prepare for a possible epidemic.

The main Saudi index lost 1.3% in early trading, with all shares in Saudi banks falling, including Al-Rajhi Bank, which lost 1.1%.

The shares of the Saudi oil giant, Saudi Aramco, fell 0.9%, while the share of Arab National Bank fell 3.2%.

On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans to start preparing for the outbreak of the new Corona virus, after reports this week of new infections in a number of other countries.

The main index of Dubai Stock Exchange fell 1.2%, Emaar Properties fell 1.4%, Emirates NBD fell 1.5%, and Air Arabia shares fell 2.8%, extending its losses from the previous session.

The United Arab Emirates suspended all flights to and from Iran yesterday, Tuesday, for at least a week, due to the spread of Corona virus there.

The Qatar index fell 1.1%, affected by the fall of Qatar Insurance shares 6.9%, with the expiry of the right to distribute cash to the largest insurance company in the Gulf in terms of market value.

Abu Dhabi’s index lost 0.1% after Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank’s share fell 1.8% and International Holding Company shares fell 0.9%.

World markets
European shares fell for a fifth straight session on Wednesday, as investors feared the growing impact of the Corona virus.

The Stoxx 600 index of European shares fell 0.8% by 08:13 UTC, to record the first loss in five consecutive days since July 2019, and this comes after unpleasant dealings in Asia Wall Street overnight.

In Japan, stocks continued their losses today, Wednesday, to close at the lowest level in more than four months, as the massive increase in cases of coronavirus outside China threatens to harm global economic growth, forcing investors to abandon risky assets.

The Nikkei fell 0.79% to 22,426.19 points, the lowest closing level since October 15, 2019, although the index trimmed most of the losses incurred in early trading to close above a major support level which is the 200-day moving average at 22,169 points.

The broader Topix index fell 0.75% to 1708.89 points.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial and Standard & Poor's 500 Indexes lost 3% in losses, for the fourth consecutive session, with the spread of the Coruna virus outbreak worldwide.