The outbreak of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and confirmation of the first infection in Cambodia on Monday is affecting the local bourse, an official of the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) said.

With the Chinese accounting for at least 13 per cent of all investors, the Cambodian stock market is feeling the impact of the ongoing pandemic, said CSX market strategist and chief operating officer Ha Jong-weon.

On Monday, Cambodia reported the first case of the virus. A Chinese tourist in the coastal town of Sihanoukville tested positive for the disease after checking into a hospital with flu-like symptoms.

The Chinese man had arrived on a flight on January 23, from Wuhan city, in China, the epicentre of the outbreak.

Ha said on Tuesday that only 1,717 shares were traded, with the CSX index closing 23 points lower (-3 per cent). He said this is linked with the fact that Chinese-owned accounts are some of the biggest at CSX.

“I think the slump in the stock market was caused by Chinese traders and also by domestic investors. Many of these local investors panicked when reports of the first case of the coronavirus in the Kingdom surfaced.

“This was beyond our control. Every stock exchange must deal with this,” he said.

He pointed out that the pandemic has had a similar impact on bourses around the world. On Monday, the Stoxx 600, which tracks a large number of European stocks, slumped by more than two per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average of the US fell 384 points or 1.3 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly fell more than 500 points earlier in the day. While most markets in Asia were closed for the Lunar New Year, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell by more than two per cent while the Thai SET Index slipped 2.89 per cent.

“The Chinese and Taiwanese were the top foreign traders at CSX during the first six years of the bourse,” Ha said, explaining that Japan and Thailand recently overtook China to become first and second, respectively.

Last year, Japanese investors accounted for 90 per cent of total foreign trade, followed by Thailand (five per cent) and China (two per cent).

“We have been trying to diversify our base of foreign investors by reaching out to the Asean+3 countries,” he said.

Ha noted that the current situation presents an opportunity to buy shares at a lower price.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, market capitalisation last year increased by 157 per cent to $800.39 million.

So far, five companies have issued shares at the bourse and three have issued bonds, with the CSX raising a record $151 million from securities and corporate bond trading last year.

The number of investors also reached 22,338 last year, 17 per cent of whom were foreigners. An average of 1.75 million shares was traded per month last year (about $4.22 million per month).