mo4ch:>Philippine stock market tanks 24% after 2-day closure over coronavirus panic | Mo4ch News

The Philippines’ major stock index, the PSE Composite, has seen a huge rout, falling by 24 percent soon after trading opened. The slide comes after markets were shuttered for two days as Covid-19 takes a toll on the world economy.The index took a beating almost immediately after trading began on Thursday morning, dropping by 12 percent and triggering a “circuit breaker” – in which all exchanges are halted for 15 minutes in hopes of preventing a wave of ‘panic-selling’. But the decline continued apace when trading resumed, falling another 12 percent before 10am local time – before bouncing back slightly.The island nation became the first country to shut down its financial markets over the Covid-19 pandemic earlier this week, halting all stock, bond and currency trading after the PSE Composite saw rapid declines amid the virus-induced panic. The two-day pause appears to have done little to stem the plummeting stock values, however.Elsewhere in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index also took a …