Japan's Stock Index Nikkei 225 Slumps 4.4% To 35-Month Low

Japan's Stock Index Nikkei 225 Slumps 4.4% to 35-Month Low

Nikkei 225, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main index, closed down 4.4 percent on Thursday amid fears around the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th March, 2020) Nikkei 225, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main index, closed down 4.4 percent on Thursday amid fears around the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Nikkei 225 ended the trading day at 18,559.63 points, the lowest closure since April 2017. The index closed down in five of the past six days.

Other indices of the Asia Pacific also performed poorly. Shanghai Composite fell 1.52 percent to 2,923.49 points, Shenzhen Composite was down 2.2 percent at 1,818.56 points, South Korea's KOSPI lost 3.87 percent and closed at 1834.33 points, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 3.66 percent to 24309.07 points, while Australian S&P/ASX 200 collapsed by 7.36 percent to 5304.6 points.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the spread of the coronavirus infection a pandemic. The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 126,000, with over 4,600 fatalities. About 68,000 people have recovered.