The Australian market has clawed back some of its early losses. After falling as much as about 2.5% in early trade, by lunchtime the benchmark ASX200 index was trading at about 1.6% down from yesterday.
But coronavirus fears continue to flay stocks that are heavily exposed to China or sell to Australia’s debt-laden consumers. Airline flight website Webjet is down 6.8%, softdrinks company Coca-Cola Amatil is off 5.25% and telco TPG – which has recently been given the green light to merge with rival Vodafone Hutchinson – has fallen about 2.6%.
Miner Rio Tinto, which reports its results tomorrow, is down 1.9% while rival BHP is down 1.75%. Both rely heavily on selling iron ore to Chinese customers.
