Global share prices headed for the worst week since the world financial crisis in 2008 as investors braced for the coronavirus to become a pandemic and rapidly spread around the world.
Hopes that the epidemic that started in China would be over in a few months and economic activity would return to normal have been shattered, as new infections reported around the world now surpass those in China.
MSCI all country world index fell 3.3 per cent on Thursday to bring its losses so far this week to 8.8 per cent, on course for its biggest weekly decline since a 9.8 per cent plunge in November 2008.
Wall Street shares led the rout as the S&P 500 fell 4.42 per cent, its largest percentage drop since August 2011.
It has lost 12 per cent since hitting a record close on Feb. 19, marking its fastest correction ever in just six trading days while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,190.95 points, its biggest points drop ever.