Coronavirus: Asia stock markets continue global fallout

Stock markets in Asia suffered on Tuesday from the fallout from UK and US investors worried about a rise in coronavirus cases.

Australia, Hong Kong, China and South Korea stock markets were all down.

Investors were also rattled by dimming hopes for more financial support for the US economy.

However, European markets opened slightly higher on Tuesday and London's 100 share index was up 0.4% at 5826.24 points.

Earlier, Australia's All Ordinaries ended down 0.7% at 5,973.50, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1% to 23,720.06, the Shanghai Composite fell 1.3% to 3,274.30 while South Korea's Kospi dropped by 2.38%, to end at 2,332.59.

Japan's markets were closed for a public holiday.

On Monday, UK and US stock markets suffered heavy losses over fears that a renewed rise in coronavirus cases will blight economic prospects.

More than £50bn was wiped off UK shares, and caused similar falls across European and US stock markets.

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The negative sentiment then spread into Asia, which has previously been the focus of optimism from China's continued economic recovery.

Australian shares were dragged to their lowest level since mid-June, under pressure by its mining and energy stocks.

Major mining firms BHP Group and Rio Tinto both fell around 2%.

Multiple tensions

"The biggest issue for local markets is how the battle for tech sector super dominance plays out between the US and China, which is getting viewed through the lens of the ByteDance /Oracle -Walmart deal," said Stephen Innes, a market strategist at Sydney-based financial firm AxiCorp.

"Election risk is also coming to the fore with the first US election debate on the 29th, which is compounding things," he added.

In Europe, banking shares were affected by an extra set of concerns as allegations of money-laundering surfaced in leaked files and those falls carried on into Asian trading.

HSBC, the bank at the centre of the scandal, saw its share price fall 5.3% in London on Monday, but the revelations dragged down the entire sector, with other big banks dropping by a similar amount.

HSBC's shares have hit a 25-year low and they continued to slide in Hong Kong on Tuesday, falling another 2%.

Shares in UK-based bank Standard Chartered, which was also named in the leaked papers, fell another 2.6% on Tuesday to hit an 18-year low on the Hong Kong market.