By Gina Lee
Investing.com - Asian stock markets were down on Monday morning as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise unabated.
Risk sentiment remained weak today as the World Health Organization said that there are now 638,146 global COVID-19 cases as of March 29.
The ASX 200 saw the sole gain as it rose 1.79% by 10:33 PM ET (3:33 AM GMT). Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will announce further income support for workers later today as part of a third stimulus package as the coronavirus savages the economy.
He also announced tighter restrictions on foreign takeovers, with all proposed overseas investment in Australian businesses triggering government scrutiny regardless of the value.
China’s Shanghai Composite lost 1.22% while the Shenzhen Component was down by 2.9%. The National Bureau of Statistic will publish the country's latest manufacturing PMI numbers on Tuesday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 3.36%. The Japanese government expanded its entry ban to include citizens traveling from the U.S., China, South Korea and most of Europe.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell by 1.51%.
South Korea’s KOSPI was down by 1.74% as the government considers financial support to 10 million lower-income households at an emergency economic council meeting this week.
Rodrigo Catril, a currency strategist at National Australia Bank, told CNBC: “The big question for markets is whether the huge stimulus introduced so far across the globe will be enough to help the global economy withstand the economic shock from the COVID-19 containment measures.”
“To answer this question one needs to know the magnitude of the containment measures and for how long they will be implemented,” he added. Although this was “unknown” at this point, he suggested that markets are “likely to remain volatile” until the uncertainty is resolved.