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· Stocks in Asia Pacific lost their earlier upward momentum in Thursday afternoon trade as fears over the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

Major markets in the region fell deep into negative territory, with South Korea’s Kospi leading losses as it dropped 6.86% while the Kosdaq index fell 7.5%. The Korea Exchange said earlier circuit breakers were triggered after the Kospi dropped 8%, with trading halted for 20 mins, according to Reuters.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was last down 3.53% after earlier jumping more than 2%. Jobs data released Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February at 5.1%.

Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index fell 5.37%.

· The show stoppers were South Korea’s KOSPI and Indonesia’s IDX that hit circuit breakers amid fears of an outbreak. “Foreign investors sold some $317 million net of KOSPI shares Thursday, taking the sell-off into an11th straight day,” said Bloomberg.

· Japan’s share benchmark Nikkei fell to a 3-1/2-year low on Thursday, reversing early gains as panic selling over the coronavirus pandemic overshadowed a massive shot of stimulus from the world’s major central banks.

The Nikkei average rose as much as 2.6% at one point but closed down 1.04% at 16,552.83, its lowest close since November 2016. It has fallen about 30% in the past four weeks.

The Nikkei’s volatility index, a measure of investors’ volatility expectations based on option pricing and considered to be a fear gauge, rose 4.2% to 58.45, not far from Monday’s nine-year peak of 60.86.

Traders said it appeared some global investors have rushed to liquidate their holdings for fear of potential market closures due to the virus crisis.

· Shares of SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) closed down 17% on Thursday in their biggest one-day fall, hammered by investor scepticism over the outlook for tech bets, such as office sharing firm WeWork and ridehailer Uber (UBER.N).

As economic gloom grows over a coronavirus outbreak, SoftBank racked up the second biggest fall in the benchmark index .N225, breaking the 3,000-yen level to close at 2,687 yen.

The one-day fall is greater than during the bursting of the dot-com bubble, which evaporated most of Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son’s wealth, as his plans to build a tech investing empire via the $100 billion Vision Fund stutter.

Uber’s shares closed down 22% overnight as people around the world stay home to try and slow the spread of the virus.

European markets made a mixed start Thursday despite the European Central Bank launching a 750 billion euro (around $821 billion) bond-buying program designed to help the region’s economy through the coronavirus outbreak.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 slid 0.3% below the flatline at the start of the trading session, with basic resources falling 3% to lead losses while telecoms climbed 1.7% 

· China and Hong Kong stocks fell sharply on Thursday, joining a global rout as emergency central bank measures in Europe, the United States and Australia failed to halt a fresh wave of panic selling.

The Hang Seng index dropped 4.3% to 21,344.93, the lowest since July 2016, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 4.9% to 8,366.04.

The CSI300 index fell 2.7% to 3,536.65 by the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.1% to 2,670.37.

Analysts are slashing their growth forecasts for China to lows not seen since the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, as the coronavirus outbreak takes its toll on the world’s second-largest economy.