Half of Shanghai will go into lockdown for four days,followed by a similar lockdown in the other half of the city in an attempt to stamp out a COVID-19 outbreak. Residents will not be allowed to leave their homes and production at factories,including Tesla’s,will be suspended.
Meanwhile,Bloomberg reported last week that traders are volunteering to take turns camping out in their offices to avoid restrictions sweeping through the cities at a time when Chinese capital markets are experiencing the biggest bout of volatility since mid-2020.
That means making sure workers have enough provisions on hand in case they get stuck in the office. At AXA SPDB Investment Managers Co,for example,staff is being supplied with airbeds,instant noodles and emergency kits.
“We’re on the front line of investing here,and we need faster and more effective in-person communications,” said Alex Wang,who along with a dozen of his colleagues at another fund company volunteered to take turns living out of their Shanghai office over the past two weeks with the company’s consent.
The Shanghai government has urged people in its main financial and business districts to work from home as it implements residential and office lockdowns as well as mass testing to battle the nation’s worst COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic emerged in early 2020. The megacity of 25 million people has seen sharp increases in cases over the past few days. China reporting 6,000 cases on Sunday.
More than 600 local cases were reported over the past three days in Pudong district,home to a bevy of domestic and international banks and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
“With everyone staying together in the office,we can be more focused than ever,especially at a time when the market is in a downturn,” said Wang,who preferred that his company not be named due to sensitivities over the government’s strategy to stamp out the virus.
China’s stock market experienced one of its most volatile periods in decades last week,with record plunges followed by dizzying reversals after Beijing made a sweeping set of promises to stabilise equities. A two-day rebound restored $1.3 trillion of market value in Hong Kong and the mainland,though both markets are still down sharply this year overall. The CSI300 index is down 0.8 per cent today,while the Hang Seng is up 1.3 per cent,reversing an earlier fall of 0.9 per cent.
China has been sticking to a so-called Covid Zero policy that’s leaving it increasingly isolated as countries around the world learn to live with variants such as Omicron.
Other firms in Shanghai that have made contingency plans in the event of office lockdowns include CIB Fund Management Co. and ABC-CA Fund Management Co.
ABC-CA fund managers are bringing suitcases packed with clothes and essentials to work since the firm allowed flexible work arrangements last week. The company has provisions such as cots,sleeping bags and personal hygiene products in case of emergencies like a building lockdown,according to a statement on its wechat account.
Ma Yijun,a fund manager with ABC-CA,said he hasn’t left his office since last Thursday and he’s unsure when he can return home to his family.
“I chose to stay because fewer and fewer people are able to leave their homes with more compounds being placed under lockdown,” he said.
“But it’s a choice that anyone at the company would make at this trying time,as we want to ensure smooth operations of our funds.”