Control of the coronavirus gives China the world’s best-performing stockmarket

THE START of February seems an eternity ago. Then, almost all concern about the coronavirus outbreak was focused on China, home to more than 99% of confirmed infections. America had seven known cases and Italy just two. The epidemic had not even received its official name. Less than six weeks later, covid-19, as the disease is now known, has become a global pandemic (for full coverage of the pandemic, see our Covid19 tracker). Italy is under a country-wide quarantine. The virus is spreading rapidly in America. But China is gradually getting back to work, having wrestled its outbreak under control.

Financial markets have also been turned upside-down. In early February, China was the trouble spot, its equities among the world’s worst performers (their decline started after state media reported on January 20th that human-to-human transmission of the virus was possible). American stocks were, almost on a daily basis, climbing to record highs. Their positions have since been reversed. Equities have cratered throughout much of the world. The American stockmarket’s bull run, its longest on record, has come to a shuddering halt. Instead, it is China that stands as the world’s best-performing market of 2020. Granted, the CSI 300 index, a benchmark of China’s biggest companies, is down by about 5% since the start of January. But that looks good when indexes around the world have plunged far more sharply. American stocks are still down by about 15% this year even allowing for the giant rally just before trading ended last week. ChiNext, a board for high-tech companies that is meant to be China’s answer to Nasdaq, is up by more than 10% this year

Source: The Economist




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