* Euro STOXX 600 hits record highs
* Scant consensus on market impact of coronavirus
* Hopes of government stimulus support shares globally
* Mainland China shares have recovered most of virus-caused
losses
* Euro falls to 3-year low
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
* Graphic on coronavirus https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
(Updates prices throughout; adds BofA flows data)
By Tom Wilson
LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Stock markets across the world
ticked higher on Friday, even as investors debated whether
China's coronavirus outbreak would cause long-lasting damage to
the global economy.
Europe's broad Euro STOXX 600 .STOXX hit a record high,
gaining 0.2% to mirror gains in Asia after a choppy start to the
Indexes in London .FTSE and Frankfurt .GDAXI gained 0.2%
and 0.3% respectively, with the former moving higher after
AstraZeneca AZN.L shares turned positive. The drugmaker had
earlier fallen 5% after it said it would take a hit from the
coronavirus outbreak. It was a similar picture in Paris .FCHI , which clawed back
some early losses as Renault RENA.PA shares turned positive.
It was last down 0.2%.
Renault had dropped over 4% on its first loss in 10 years as
the car company set a lower operating margin goal for 2020, a
crunch year for its planned reboot alongside partner Nissan
after a scandal surrounding former boss Carlos Ghosn.
Wall Street futures EScv1 pointed to a slightly higher
open.
The Chinese virus outbreak has showed no sign of peaking,
with health authorities reporting more than 5,000 new cases.
China's National Health Commission said it had recorded 121 new
deaths on the mainland on Feb. 13, taking the accumulated total
infected to 63,851 people. Yet some investors are betting that the economic impact of
the outbreak will not be long-lasting, finding succour in a
spread beyond China that is not as rapid as feared.
Others have latched on to the possibility of further central
bank stimulus measures in response to any slowdown. China's
central bank, for example, has already pumped liquidity into its
economy.
But some investors said they were dialling down bets on
equities amid the uncertainty over what economic toll the
coronavirus would take.
"We have actually taken some money out of equities this
week," said Rory McPherson, head of investment strategy at
Psigma Investment Management, adding that it was temporarily
holding cash instead.
"Markets have been overly focused on the good, and not
giving a balanced view on whether the stimulus from China isn't
effective, and if the coronavirus spreads and impacts the
economy more."
MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks shares
in 49 countries, was flat.
Earlier, Asian shares had earlier risen towards their second
straight week of gains, helped by hopes governments will make
provisions to soften the impact on their economies from the
coronavirus epidemic.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.1% for a weekly gain of almost 2%.
China's blue-chip CSI300 shares .CSI300 , meanwhile, rose 0.7%,
having staged a stunning recovery to claw back 95% of their
losses made after the outbreak.
"China is already easing its monetary policy and providing
more liquidity while more stimulus is likely," said Yukino
Yamada, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
In its weekly number crunch of markets, analysts at BofA
said there had been a record $23.6 billion pumped into bond
funds over the last week and big inflows into almost everything
else as well. They also spotted that an interest rate cut in Mexico on
Thursday had chalked up the 800th cut by global central banks
since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. That
works out roughly one every five days on average.
EURO BLUES
In currency markets, traders had other matters than the
cornoavirus on their minds.
The euro EUR=EBS slumped to another near-three-year low,
with worries lingering about slowing growth in the euro zone and
rising political uncertainties in Germany.
Euro zone growth slowed as expected in the last quarter of
2019 as French and Italian GDP shrank but employment growth
picked up more than expected, official estimates showed.
The euro did not waver on the numbers, having earlier fallen
to as low as $1.0827.
The single currency last stood flat at $1.08390. It has lost
1% so far this week and is on track for its worst two-weekly
performance since mid-2018.
Others market players noted growing demand for the U.S.
dollar.
"Investors will surely avoid Asia for the time being and
will shift funds to the U.S., geographically the most separated
from the region," said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment
strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar .DXY hit a
four-month high and was last at 99.115. It has risen 1.8% so far
this month. The U.S. currency has been trampling everything in
its path, including emerging market currencies.
Brazil's real BRL= has hit a record low forcing its
central bank to intervene to prop it up, while Turkey's lira
TRY= has crumpled to a near nine-month low.
Oil edged higher and was on track for its first weekly gain
in six weeks, backed by expectations that producers will
implement deeper output cuts to offset slowing demand in China
caused by the coronavirus epidemic. Brent crude futures LCOc1
were up 85 cents at $57.19 a barrel.
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