Asian stocks declines as South Korea bears the burden of COVID-19

Despite receding coronavirus (COVID-19) numbers from China, Asian share markets aren’t happy as cases from South Korea continue to flash red signals. As of February 26, South Korea registered a total of 1,146 cases compared to less than 100 a week ago. This pushed the US and Japan to turn down the visitors to the Asian session.

While portraying the risk-off in Asia, MSCI’s index of Asia-pacific shares outside China declines by 0.80% whereas Japan’s NIKKEI follows the suit with -0.75% figures to 22,436 by the time of writing. Further, stocks in China fail to cheer the successive declines in the death toll due to the epidemic. However, doubts surrounding the cure still loom and keep the risk-tone under pressure. Additionally, South Korea’s KOSPI drops -1.03% to 2,081 and Hong Kong’s HANG SENG also equals the loss to 26,652 as Hong Kong unveiled stimulus to tame the deadly virus.

It’s worth mentioning that Singapore's STI couldn’t benefit from upbeat Industrial Production and so does India’s BSE SENSEX which loses 0.65% to 40,020 by press time even as the White House flashed green signals for the US-Indian trade deal.

On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention triggered fears of coronavirus outbreak in the world’s largest economy. Following that, the US 10-year treasury yields and Wall Street registered additional losses. However, an official later turned down any such scope and helped trigger the pullback during the early Asian session.

The US 10-year treasury yields rose three basis points (bps) to 1.359% while the S&P 500 Futures register 0.48% gains to 3,148 by the press time.

Outside Asia, the latest spread of the coronavirus in Europe and the Middle East is also an area of concern. As a result, developments surrounding the same should be watched carefully for near-term direction.