OREANDA-NEWS. Indexes of main stock exchanges in mainland China opened lower. On the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, there was also a decline at the start of trading. The Hang Seng Index, the most important Hong Kong index, fell 191 points to 26,159.

The value of shares of Chinese companies trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange decreased by 6.7% on January 31, reaching the lowest level since February 2018. As the Financial Times wrote, the reason for this was the growing number of deaths due to the spread of the coronavirus from China.

In the Russian market, the situation with coronavirus negatively affected the growth of the ruble and the value of shares. On January 27, the Mosbirzhi index was at 3115 points (at the close on January 24 this figure was 3146 points, the RTS dollar index reached 1564 points (1600 points at the close on January 24.) The ruble rate also weakened and was trading at a minimum since December 19 - the dollar at that time it cost 62.56 rubles, the euro - 68.95 rubles.

The outbreak of coronavirus began in late December of last year. The virus was found in Wuhan (Hubei Province). By February 3, according to the National Health Committee of China, 17 thousand 205 people were infected with the virus, 361 people died as a result of the disease. There are infected in other Asian countries, as well as in the USA, Australia, Canada and Russia.