Market Fears as Novel Coronavirus Spreads
Updated: Mar 25, 2020
It hasn't been a very Happy Chinese New Year since the number of confirmed cases of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) continued to soar during the holidays. Contingency measures such as travel bans and mall closures were imposed to prevent the virus from spreading further. Businesses were affected, leading to negative reaction in market as STI dipped by almost 3%.
This brings about the question, what should we do about this dip? To answer that, we have to dig deeper into this Novel Coronavirus situation.
I took some time to tabulate the current Novel Coronavirus situation in China based off the latest update provided by National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China.
Coronavirus sure is real scary just by looking at the chart. In just a few days, the number of cases have spiked up at a frightening rate which clearly demonstrates how contagious the virus is.
-Edited 8 Feb 2020-
I changed the chart type non stacking as it makes more sense. Just an observation, even though total number of cases is increasing at an exponential rate, new cases is not increasing at the same rate. Is the Coronavirus situation beginning to fall under control? Changed data to weekly figures.
However, looking through the Coronavirus update, I'm surprised that media did not cover the figures of people recovering from the virus.
Compared to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), Coronavirus is not as deadly for the number of cured patients was also on the rise. In fact, most of the deceased had pre-existing conditions. This meant that chances of survival is much higher if the person has good health.
-Edited 8 Feb 2020-
Updated Cured and Death chart to weekly figures.
As for Singapore, latest update reported that total number of Wuhan Coronavirus has gone up to 10. All of the infected patients are Chinese nationals from Wuhan and no Singaporeans affected so far. For now, I think Singaporeans just have to remain calm and keep a lookout for anyone exhibiting symptoms.
-Edited 8 Feb 2020-
Number of cases in Singapore has gone up to 33 which made people shit their pants and began to clear shelves of supermarket.
Coming back to the question
I feel that this Novel Coronavirus situation in Singapore is under control so there is no need for panic (well, panicking doesn't help with anything anyway). Although no cure has been developed yet, mortality rate is much lower compared to SARS. Globally, everyone had learnt from past mistakes during the previous SARS outbreak so this time round should be better managed. Hence, I believe that market will continue to hover around these level until any signs of good news.
What I have planned to do is to buy stocks that have dropped at least 10% to capitalize this dip. It should take a few months before the market recovers. Now may not be a time to buy yet. We still need to see how the Coronavirus epidemic plays out.
I will continue to revisit this post to update on the Novel Coronavirus figures. Hope China, its citizens and everyone affected by this virus tide through this difficult time.
Disclaimer: The information listed here are strictly my personal opinion. It does not constitute as investment advice. Please do your own due diligence.