Stimulus worth trillions of rand by global central banks and governments is showing no sign of calming investors.
The JSE dropped almost 6% on Monday morning, putting it on track for its biggest one-day fall in almost a week; it ended the day down 7.15% on Wednesday.
“It appears that the colossal support packages mobilised by central banks and governments won’t suffice to better the investor mood, if we don’t see a worldwide peak in coronavirus cases,” Swissquote Bank senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya said.
“Global equities continue falling into a bottomless pit as the coronavirus death toll rises, bringing along more travel restrictions and lockdowns across the globe,” she said.
The death toll had risen to more than 14,700 by Monday morning with more than 341,000 cases confirmed.
Italy, which has become the epicentre for the virus, enforced a domestic travel ban on Sunday as the death toll rose to 5,476. The US Congress failed to agree on a bill which would see a large stimulus package to curb the economic effects of the coronavirus, during a meeting on Sunday evening.
Earlier, the Shanghai Composite was down 3.11% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 4.86% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 2.02%.
At 10.55am, the JSE all share dropped 5.57% to 38,029.30 points and the top 40 5.09%. Banks were down 8.32% and the property index 10.24%. The all share is down 33.59% so far in 2020, a slide that has destroyed more than R4-trillion of value for shareholders.
Mall owner Hyprop Investments said on Monday that it will delay its interim dividend payment until October 5, amid concern about the effect of the coronavirus. Its share price dropped 8.71% to R25.06.
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