China’s wealthy suffer a $10 billion backlash
Market sentiments will turn even more dire until a cure is found
Hong Kong: The spread of the coronavirus to China’s stock market on Monday erased more than $10 billion (Dh36 billion) from the collective networth of the richest 15 people whose companies trade on the mainland.
Midea Group founder He Xiangjian lost $1.8 billion, the most among that group, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as shares of the appliance manufacturer tumbled 8.9 per cent. He was followed by Zhang Fan, whose fortune dropped $1.2 billion after his Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co., a maker of biometric-authentication equipment for mobile phones, plunged 10 per cent, the downside limit for a single day.
Four others on the list also control companies whose shares slid by the daily maximum.
Hao Hong, chief strategist of Bocom International, said no one should have been surprised by the selloff. “Chinese asset prices didn’t have a chance to reflect what was going on regarding the virus spread,” he said.
