A security guard stands at the Shanghai Stock Exchange building at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, February 3, 2020. — Reuters pic
SHANGHAI, Feb 21 — Shanghai stocks closed higher today, with the index marking its best week since last April, as Chinese policymakers vowed to help companies hurt by the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak.
** At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.3 per cent at 3,039.67. The index climbed 4.2 per cent this week, its biggest weekly gain since April 2019.
** The blue-chip CSI300 index firmed 0.1 per cent today. It posted a weekly gain of 4.1 per cent, the most since last June.
** Both indexes hit fresh one-month highs during the session. ** CSI300’s financial sector sub-index eased 0.5 per cent, the information technology sector rallied 2.6 per cent and healthcare shares gained 0.3 per cent. ** The smaller Shenzhen index rose 1.1 per cent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index climbed 1.8 per cent, having touched its highest since July 2016 earlier in the session.
** China reported an uptick in new cases of coronavirus today, although the rise in infections remained at its slowest pace since January, a downward trend that the World Health Organization has called encouraging.
** China has rolled out a raft of supportive measures to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
** The Chinese commerce ministry said today it will speed up studying new fiscal, tax financial, insurance measures to support companies to counter the impact of the epidemic.
** As widely expected, the People’s Bank of China slashed a key benchmark rate this week and said it would extend credit, provide favourable loans or rates to firms involved in controlling the epidemic. ** “Additional easing measures, if announced, could sustain the positive sentiment even longer and lead to near-term A-share outperformance versus the offshore Chinese equity market,” Morgan Stanley’s analysts wrote in a note today.
** The earliest vaccine for the coronavius will be submitted for clinical trials around late April, China’s Vice Science and Technology Minister Xu Nanping said today. ** Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.9 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei index closed down 0.4 per cent. ** The yuan was 0.14 per cent weaker at 7.0331 per US dollar by 0710 GMT.
** So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is down 0.3 per cent, while the CSI300 has risen 1.3 per cent. Shanghai stocks have gained 2.1 per cent so far this month. ** About 36.46 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, highest since last April. The volume in the previous trading session was 34.57 billion. ** The Shanghai stock index is above its 50-day moving average and 200-day moving average. — Reuters