Hong Kong Stock Exchange suspends trade in face of super Typhoon Saola

Investing.com-- Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing (HK:0388), the operator of the city’s stock exchange, said on Friday that its morning trading session was delayed as the city issued a warning over Typhoon Saola.

The exchange operator said in a statement on its website that morning trade in its securities and derivatives markets will be delayed after the Hong Kong Observatory issued a No. 8 warning signal early on Typhoon Saola, its third-highest warning level for bad weather conditions. HKEX also said that trading will remain suspended as long as the No. 8 warning is in effect. 

The warning effectively brings all activity in the city to a halt, closing schools, offices and most public infrastructure. The observatory said that the No.8 warning is likely to stay in effect for the rest of the day, and that the city is expected to see “heavy squally showers and violent winds,” as well as potential flooding due to the storm surge. 

While the storm is only expected to skirt within 300 km of Hong Kong as it makes landfall in Guangdong, it is expected to be among the five strongest typhoons to hit the Chinese region since 1949, with wind speeds of over 200 kmph. 

Chinese authorities issued their highest-level typhoon warning this week, with the storm set to make landfall later on Friday. Other parts of China are also expected to see heavy rainfall and gale force winds.

A second typhoon, Tropical Cyclone Haikui, is also expected to move across the seas east of Taiwan, and is expected to hit China’s eastern coast in the coming days.