China stocks post worst week in 9 months as virus toll rises

Chinese stocks eked out gains on Friday, although they suffered their worst weekly loss in nine months on concerns about an economic impact due to the rapidly-spreading coronavirus in China, which has killed over 630 people. ** The Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.3% at 2,875.96. For the week, it shed 3.4% after markets witnessed heavy selling on Monday when they reopened after the Lunar New Year break. ** China had extended the holiday period to contain the spread of the virus. ** The blue-chip CSI300 index ended flat and closed the week with losses of 2.6%. ** The CSI300, Shanghai and Shenzhen benchmarks have all recovered over half of their losses made on Monday. About $700 billion of market value was wiped off Shanghai and Shenzhen benchmarks on Monday. ** CSI300's financial sector sub-index edged down 0.4%, the consumer staples sector was up 0.8%, the real estate index fell 0.8% and the healthcare sub-index lost 1.2%. ** The CSI300 financial sector sub-index fell 4.9% during the week, its worst weekly show since May 2019; the real estate sub-index shed 6.7% — its worst weekly fall since late-April 2019. ** The smaller Shenzhen index rose 0.5% and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 0.2% on Friday. ** China's central bank said its economy could be disrupted in the first quarter from the virus outbreak, adding that it is preparing policy tools to support its economy. ** Chinese President Xi Jinping assured his U.S. counterpart on Friday that China was doing all it can to contain the virus. ** "As the virus spreads, industry sectors more directly exposed to the disruption caused by the virus will likely suffer the largest price swing," T Rowe Price said in a note, naming Macau's gaming sector and Chinese real estate as two examples. ** Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said on Thursday it was too early to say that the virus outbreak in China was peaking. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.7%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.2%. ** At 0705 GMT, the yuan was 0.1% weaker at 6.981 per U.S. dollar. ** So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is down 5.7% and the CSI300 has fallen 4.8%. ** About 30.95 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange. The volume in the previous trading session was 31.64 billion.