Asian shares mostly lower as new China virus cases spike

Asian shares were mostly lower Thursday as reported cases of new irus jumped in Chins. Shanghai Composite declined 0.7% to 2,906.07 in afternoon tring. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.3% to 27,730.00. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.1% lower at 23,827.73, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2% to 7,103.20. Shares were lower in Singapore, Thailand and India, while New Zealand and Taiwan rose.

China reported more than 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 disease and 254 more deaths. jump was apparently due to a new reporting methodology.

Local officials have been widely criticized for ir handling of outbreak of new form of coronavirus. virus first surfaced in December in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, and has since spre to more than two dozen countries. China has replaced its top officials in Hubei and in Wuhan.

spike came as a surprise for investors, who h become more at ease because of a recent decline in daily number of new cases.

Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG Group, said if spike portends a “steeper upward trajectory from here, short-term risk aversion could return.”

Many countries have implemented travel restrictions on recent visitors to China, which has more than 99% of world’s reported infections.

On Wall Street, stocks marched higher on Wednesday as investors focused on latest batch of mostly solid corporate earnings.

S&P 500 index rose 0.65%, to 3,379.45. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.9%, to 29,511.42.

Benchmark crude oil lost 24 cents to $50.93 a barrel. It rose 37 cents to settle at $49.94 a barrel. Brent crude oil, international standard, lost 42 cents to $55.37 a barrel.

dollar weakened to 109.776 yen from 110.08 yen. euro strengned to $1.0885 from $1.0876.