South Korea confirms three Mers cases

SEOUL // South Koreaon Thursday confirmed three cases of a respiratory virus Mers.

A 76-year-old man was diagnosed on Thursday with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The patient shared a hospital room with a man who was South Korea’s first confirmed case of Mers, agency chief Yang Byung-guk said.

The first patient was not isolated initially because it was not known why he was ill.

Mr Yang said the first patient had visited Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. His wife also contracted the disease.

All three are being treated in hospitals and they are not in critical condition, according to Mr Yang’s agency.

Additionally, 64 hospital workers and family members of the confirmed Mers patients have been quarantined, Mr Yang said.

Mers was discovered in 2012 and has mostly been centred in Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of people in the Middle East have been killed by Mers.

It belongs to the family of coronaviruses that includes the common cold and Sars, and can cause fever, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure.

The virus is thought to be primarily acquired through contact with camels, but it can also spread from human fluids and droplets.

A number of cases in Saudi Arabia have involved health workers caring for Mers patients.

There have been a total of 1,142 cases of the virus worldwide and 465 have died, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Of the fatalities, 428 cases were from Saudi Arabia.

* Associated Press

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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.