Markets bounce back after crash

Oil and equity markets staged solid rebounds on Tuesday after the previous day’s pummelling, with signs of coordinated action by the world’s biggest economies to cushion the economic impact of coronavirus helping pull investors out of panic mode. Japan said it would spend another 430.8 billion yen to ease the effects of the coronavirus outbreak and Italy’s deputy economy minister announced that mortgage payments would be suspended as the country deals with the second highest number of cases outside China. “As of today, we believe that markets have gone from being overly complacent to overly pessimistic,” the chief investment officers of Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi wrote in a note to clients. China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index traded 2.1% higher as new domestic coronavirus cases tumbled and President Xi Jinping’s visit to the epicentre of the epidemic lifted sentiment.