Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Bursa Malaysia took another beating in early trade today as selling pressure from last week’s Friday the 13th persisted, with the FBM KLCI down 3.34 per cent.

At 9.10 am today, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 44.99 points to 1,299.76 compared with Friday’s close of 1,344.75, after opening 25.38 points lower at 1,319.37 this morning.

On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 539 to 57, with 105 counters unchanged, 1,320 untraded and 31 others suspended. 

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets and U.S. futures fell Monday after the Federal Reserve slashed its key interest rate to shore up economic growth in the face of mounting global anti-virus controls that are shutting down business and travel.

Sydney’s benchmark plunged 7% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2%. Shanghai was down 0.5% and Tokyo was flat. Brent crude, the international oil standard, fell 3% while gold gained.

On Wall Street, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index fell 5% on Sunday night and triggered a halt in trading.

TOKYO (AP) — The Bank of Japan has convened an emergency policy meeting after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate to 0.25% to combat the blow to the economy from the virus outbreak.

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda called the meeting for Monday instead of Wednesday and Thursday as originally planned.

A BOJ statement said the meeting was “to discuss monetary control matters based on recent economic and financial developments.”

BEIJING, Mar 15 (APP): To help Pakistan improve its ability for independent development, China has been assisting Pakistan in cultivating local talents and technical force, building infrastructure, and utilizing its own resources, Cheng Xizhong, a Chinese scholar said on Sunday.

“In my opinion, to achieve domestic production, three basic conditions need to be created,” he said in his article published by China Economic Net.

BEIJING, March 15 (NNN-Xinhua) — A total of 1,370 patients of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were discharged from the hospital Saturday on the Chinese mainland, according to the National Health
Commission.

Altogether 66,911 patients had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Saturday, the commission said in its daily report.

As of Saturday, a total of 80,844 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 had been reported on the mainland, and 3,199 people had died of the disease.

JAKARTA, March 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Indonesia reported 21 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 117, CNN Indonesia reported on Sunday, citing health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.

Of the new cases, 19 were detected in Jakarta and two in the Central Java province, Yurianto reportedly said.

Indonesia’s transport minister is in intensive care after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, an official said.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Sunday reported 76 new coronavirus cases and three more deaths, a fall in new cases to double-digits for the first time in over three weeks, as President Moon Jae-in declared the hardest hit provinces “special disaster zones”.

It is the first time South Korea has declared a region a disaster zone from an infectious disease and under the status the government can subsidize up to 50 percent of restoration expenses and exempt residents from taxes and utility payments.

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's iron and steel sector saw overall stable growth in 2019, as the continued effort in cutting overcapacity filtered through, data showed.

The output of crude steel saw an 8.3-percent growth to stand at 996 million tonnes in 2019, marking a new all-time high, while pig iron output went up 5.3 percent from one year earlier to 809 million tonnes, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed.

BEIJING, Mar 13 (APP): The COVID-19 pandemic could be brought under control in June if all impacted countries take the virus seriously and implement strong national-level measures to control it, said Zhong Nanshan, a well-known Chinese respiratory expert and head of its top-level panel of scientists against the new coronavirus outbreak.

SEOUL, Mar 14 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea confirmed 107 more cases of the COVID-19, compared to 24 hours ago, as of midnight Saturday local time, raising the total number of infections to 8,086.

The new cases remained below 200 for the third consecutive day, after recording 110 on Friday and 114 on Thursday.

Five more deaths were reported, lifting the death toll to 72. The total fatality rate stood at 0.84 percent.

A total of 204 more patients were discharged from quarantine, after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 714.