Pharmaceutical stocks spike after China reports new coronavirus cases

Chinese pharmaceutical stocks skyrocketed Monday as China reported more than 100 new cases of pneumonia caused by a new strain of coronavirus.

A major stock index in China that mainly tracks healthcare and IT companies closed at its highest level in three years. The ChiNext Price Index jumped 2.6% to its highest finish since January 2017.

More than a dozen pharmaceutical firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen spiked by 10%, the daily maximum amount allowed. Tianjin Teda, which makes masks that are often used to protect against the the transmission of illnesses, also surged 10% in Shenzhen.

Jiangsu Bioperfectus Technologies, a company that recently said it has created a drug testing kit that could allow hospitals to better detect the virus, jumped 20% on the Star Market. That’s the maximum allowed on that board, which was launched in Shanghai last year.

China has reported 139 new cases of the sickness, including a third death. The outbreak is spreading beyond Wuhan, the city in central China where it was first identified in December: Two cases have been reported in Thailand, and one has been reported in Japan. All cases have been linked to Wuhan.

More broadly, stocks were mostly higher in Asia. China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite closed up 0.7%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.5%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, though, dropped 0.9%.

Here are a few other talking points in Asia at 5 p.m. Hong Kong time:

• The People’s Bank of China kept its one-year loan prime rate (LPR) unchanged at 4.15% on Monday. The five-year LPR also remained steady at 4.8%. The LPR, which banks charge corporate clients for new loans, is a new benchmark that China introduced in August. It hopes the rate will gradually replace the existing fixed benchmark lending rate, and do a better job in passing on lower rates to borrowers in the corporate sector.

• One of China’s largest insurers on Sunday forecast that its annual net profit might have increased by as much as $7 billion — a 420% increase. China Life Insurance said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it benefited from strong investment returns and from favorable tax policies. The company’s stock jumped 0.9% and 3.4% in Hong Kong and Shanghai, respectively.

— CNN’s Nectar Gan contributed to this report.