Wuhan virus: More short-term pain but lasting damage unlikely

RISING concerns over an outbreak of a deadly coronavirus originating from Wuhan, China has stalled the risk-on market rally which began in October last year.

The number of confirmed cases globally has spiked more than two hundred-fold over the past two weeks to over 4,500 cases, including over 100 deaths as at Jan 28, 2020.

While it is still early stages with limited information available, drawing from our analysis of past coronavirus outbreaks, our base case is that the Wuhan outbreak would likely last between two and four months and that the impact on China's annual GDP growth would be limited to an estimated 0.5 per cent or less.