SHANGHAI : COVID-19 is sweeping through trading floors in Beijing and spreading fast in the financial hub of Shanghai, with illness and absence thinning already light trade and forcing regulators to cancel a weekly meeting vetting public share sales.
"I would say more than half of colleagues in Beijing are sick, compared with 5 per cent-10 per cent in Shanghai," said a fund manager at PICC Asset Management, declining to be named as he's not authorised to speak to the media. Most currency traders in Beijing are absent from offices, so"trading volume would naturally fall," said a trader at a state-owned lender, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to discuss such matters with the media.