Virus anxiety returns on Friday but STI ends 0.9% up on week

GOING by the mood on trading floors across the Asia-Pacific, it would not be an overstatement to say anxiety has returned after three sessions of gains.

The mid-week focus on encouraging regional economic data and stimulus measures by China's central bank all but evaporated. Returning to the centre of attention was the unrelenting pace of the novel coronavirus spread and, along with it, the impact it is having on the global economy.

Oanda's Asia-Pacific senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley noted that investors were also booking profits and reducing risk ahead of crucial US non-farm payroll data for January.