Hong Kong stocks fell again on Thursday, joining a sell-off in other Asian markets, as worries continue to mount over the rapid spread of the coronavirus outbreak and its adverse impact on the global economy.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed Thursday's session at 21,709.13, down 582.69 or 2.61 percent

The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed Thursday's session at 21,709.13, down 582.69 or 2.61 percent.

After a flat start in the morning, Hang Seng deepened its loss and tumbled 1,152 points to 21,139. It pulled up later and ended the morning session at 21,344.93, down 946.89 points or 4.25 percent. 

The China Enterprises Index lost 240.98 points, or 2.74 percent, to 8,559.64. Turnover totaled HK$191.05 billion (US$24.61 billion).

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The fear among investors about the pandemic is not going away although governments over the world are promising supports for businesses and their economies. Overnight, the Wall Street experienced another plunge. All three major US indexes ended lower with the S&P 500 Index falling 5.2 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 6.3 percent and the Nasdaq sinking 4.7 percent.

For the fourth time in ten days, trading on the New York Stock Exchange was halted for 15 minutes after the exchange’s internal level-one circuit breaker was triggered, with the S&P 500 Index slumping more than 7 percent.

READ MORE: NYSE to temporarily close floors, move to electronic trading

Citing fragile global economic outlook, Standard Chartered again cut its forecast for Hong Kong economic growth this year, a second downgrade since the coronavirus outbreak. It forecast the city’s gross domestic product to shrink 4.8 percent year-on-year