Reuters reported on the weekend that Shanghai’s central Jingan district, a key commercial area of the Chinese financial hub, will require all supermarkets and shops to shut and residents to stay home until at least Tuesday.

”The district plans to carry out COVID mass testing from Sunday until Tuesday, it said on its official WeChat account.

The use of all exit permits previously given to residents that allowed them to leave their homes will be suspended, the district added without saying why.”

The markets will potentially regard this move as a risk which could weigh on risk appetite and the sentiment would be expected to pull on equities, undoing some of the rallies from Friday. Consequently, this would be expected to hamstring high beta currencies such as the AUD in particular. 

Asian stock markets rallied on Friday, after China’s central bank announced a rate cut, and as traders bargain-hunted following Thursday sell-offs. Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo all finished in the green, as did other regional exchanges.