Renewed fears that the coronavirus will harm global growth rocked commodity markets again on Monday, with oil and metals prices tumbling while gold soared toward $1,700 an ounce amid a flight to haven assets.

There was a sea of red on the Johannesburg bourse on Monday afternoon. The JSE All Share was down 4.09% to 54 991.96 points a loss of 2344.25 points by 15h24. The Top 40 was down 4.33% to 49 354.74.

Meanwhile the rand was down 0.86% to the dollar at 15.13 by 15h43.

As the deadly virusspreadsmore widely outside China, raising the threat of a global pandemic, finance chiefs and central bankers from the worlds largest economies said they see downside risks persisting.

Thats spurring fresh alarm in commodity markets that had started to recover from lows hit earlier in the month, when Chinas virtual shutdown threw supply chains into chaos. With the International Monetary Fund cutting its global growth forecast and warning that its also looking at more dire scenarios, investors are concerned that risks to raw-material demand are worsening.

Commodities are witnessing another risk-off day as coronavirus concerns boil up, said Norbert Ruecker, head of economics at Julius Baer Group in Zurich. The oil market remains concerned about demand while the flight to safety pushes gold to new highs.

Oil led the losses on Monday, tumbling more than 3% in London and New York. Until Friday, Brent crude had been in the longest run of gains in more than a year thanks to Chinese fiscal stimulus and new threats to supplies from Africa and Latin America.

Gold beckons

As they flee riskier assets, investors are searching for safety, sending gold prices to fresh seven-year highs, with bonds also advancing. Bullion prices have taken off this year, rising about 10% as concerns over the virus deepen and speculation mounts that the U.S. Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy if the global impact worsens.

The gold price was at 1 675.59, up 1.95% at 15h46. The JSE gold mining index was up 5.78%.

The spread of the Covid-19 to Italy and South Korea is threatening the rebounds in asset prices and that fear is driving gold prices higher, said Howie Lee, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. Upward momentum is strong and interest in gold is set to remain high until the situation abates.

Shares of some of the largest commodity companies were also affected by the sharp moves in prices.

A gauge of South African gold producers climbed as much as 8.4% to the highest since 2002, led by Harmony Gold Mining Co. Yet BHP Group, the worlds biggest miner, slumped 5.4% in London, while BP Plc lost 3.5%.

Meanwhile platinum was down 1% at 965.75. Anglo American Platinum was down 8.13% to R1272.83 on the JSE, while Impala Platinum was down 7.53% to R151.33.

Given the fact that relative to other assets, commodities still remain very low and particularly taking the burden of this reaction, then you would expect the recovery to be quite sharp as we go into the third quarter, Wayne Gordon, executive director for commodities and foreign exchange, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

Beijing is nowpushingfor people to get back to work, loosening the criteria for factories to resume operations, as it tries to find a balance between containing the virus and preventing a slump in the worlds second-largest economy. But its contagion outside China thats worrying markets.

The uncertainty around how cases outside of China evolve is likely to keep market participants nervous, and therefore markets are likely to remain volatile, ING Bank commodity strategist Warren Patterson said.

Global effects

Asian and European equities slumped along with U.S. futures, while the Australian dollar retreated along with the offshore yuan.

South Korea, the hardest-hit country after China, had earlier raised its infectious-disease alert to the highest level after a 20-fold increase in cases. The situation in Europe was also escalating, with Austria halting a train from Italy on concern there were two infected passengers on board. Italy now the viruss epicentre on the continent canceled the Venice Carnival and other events amid a rising case load.

2020Bloomberg L.P.

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