Stocks in Shanghai have fallen 8.7% at the opening of the day, while the Shenzhen composite is down 9.13% and the yuan has been fixed at its lowest point this year in onshore trade, report the Guardian.

The maximum allowed before trading is suspended for the day is 10%, so we could be in for a short day. Trading in a whole range of commodities has already been suspended after losses quickly exceeded the daily limit today. The maximum level of losses – known as limit-down in trading parlance – has already been reached for iron ore, nickel, copper, eggs, palm oil, crude oil and other produce.

Today is the first trading day after China’s Spring Festival holiday, which was extended amid an ongoing virus outbreak that has taken more than 300 lives in the country so far.



This comes despite the People’s Bank of China announcing Sunday that it will inject RMB1.2 trillion (USD173 billion) worth of liquidity into the markets via open market reverse repo operations. The Chinese central bank said the overall liquidity in the system would be RMB900 billion (USD130 billion) more as compared to the same period last year.

It wasn't doom and gloom for everybody, though – shares of Improve Medical, which make face masks, jumped 8.5% in the first five minutes of trading on Monday morning, touching the trading ceiling.

Check back for more on this developing story as it happens.

[Cover image via Wikimedia]

