Asian markets plunge amid escalating US-China tensions

Stocks in Asia finished the first trading day of the week with losses tracking negative sentiment on Wall Street as the Trump administration continues verbal attacks on China over the coronavirus pandemic.

Shares trading in Hong Kong suffered steep losses, with the Hang Seng index dropping the most it has in six weeks by over four percent. Monday was the first trading day this month at the Hong Kong stock market as it was closed for holidays at the end of last week.

While some other markets in Asia, like those in Japan and mainland China, were still off for holidays, South Korea’s Kospi fell around three percent. In India, the key Mumbai Sensex index dropped over five percent and the Nifty 50 plunged more than four percent.

Australia’s stocks closed slightly higher as the market managed to bounce back after falling more than one percent.

The selloff came amid fears of a renewed trade war between the world’s two biggest economies that could inflict more pain to the global economy, already shattered by the coronavirus. Last week, US President Donald Trump, who has accused Beijing of concealing information about the deadly virus, threatened to slap China with new tariffs. The rhetoric escalated over the weekend as Trump said that China will face “consequences” if it is “knowingly responsible” for the outbreak. This is on top of leaked ‘intelligence’ data indicating that China, which was the first country to be hit with the virus, was allegedly concealing the danger.

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