People look at a screen and electronic ticker board show outside the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai, India, on March 9. Photo: VCG

Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance on Monday, with Australian shares finishing up 7 percent in their biggest rally in history, while the rest of the region largely settled in negative territory.

Indonesian stocks tripped a circuit breaker on Monday morning for the sixth time this month after its benchmark Jakarta Composite Index plummeted 5 percent following a robust rebound last week. The index ended down 2.88 percent though. 

Both Singaporean and Indian stocks were mired in heavy losses, while China's A shares lost traction in a retreat across the board.

Apparently, a lack of direction has put many investors on hold. The hesitancy toward future stock moves seems particularly prominent in the Chinese mainland equity market. 

The sluggishness in Asia-Pacific markets at large shows the concerns that still hang over the global economy, as a wide pause in activity due to the deadly disease across Europe and the US has badly hit the global economy on both the demand and supply sides, even though China's vigorous push for resumption of economic activity has seen a majority of businesses resuming operations.

Admittedly, the stability of US stocks has lately shown to be a decisive factor in the future direction being sought in other markets.

An unprecedented monetary and fiscal power has been exhibited by the US that has prompted an array of economies including South Korea, the UK, Germany, Australia and Malaysia to follow suit in ether fiscal or monetary or both fronts, resulting in an impressive rebound in many markets. 

A worryingly grim virus situation in the US over the weekend nonetheless pushed many investors back to the brink of breakdown, hammering technology stocks on concerns over a double whammy of virus-plagued global supply chains and waning consumer demand in China and globally.

With the infectious disease rumbling on, investors cannot rest on their laurels. What is noteworthy however, as a largely continuing daily net inflow into the mainland equity market has revealed, is that the wildly choppy trading in markets across the globe earlier in March seems to be tapering off. A trading halt in Indonesian stocks on Monday is by no means the norm these days. 

A rapid daily rise in the number of US infections surely tells the severity of the pandemic, but it is more likely that the worst, at least on the part of the US, could be over, suggesting less, instead of more, volatility in the US market, the mainstay of global stock stability