China’s stock market opened to the most savage wave of selling in years, with thousands of shares falling by the daily limit after just minutes of trading.
Though investors turned on computers hours early to tee up their sell orders, many of them couldn’t exit the market fast enough. All but 162 of the almost 4,000 stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen recorded losses, with about 90 per cent dropping the maximum allowed by the country’s exchanges. Health-care shares comprised most of Monday’s gainers on speculation they will benefit from the virus outbreak.
While it was always going to be brutal for China’s US$7.5 trillion stock market as investors caught up with losses worldwide, Monday’s declines were particularly severe. The CSI 300 Index sank as much as 9.1 per cent — a slump rarely seen in its almost 15-year history. The huge number of stocks trading limit down means it could take days for investors to execute their orders, prolonging the sell-off.
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