The quake's effect on the stock exchange

Quick updates on the quake's economic and financial impact from the news so far:

66 companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen were suspended from trading today, says financial wire XFN Asia.

45 of the companies are listed in Shanghai and the rest in Shenzhen. The Shanghai exchange said it could not contact the suspended companies in Sichuan and Chongqing, while the Shenzhen exchange said some of the companies, based in Sichuan province, couldn't yet disclose the quake's impact on their business.

Dow Jones' MarketWatch reported that the Shanghai Composite Index was down nearly 3% this afternoon with China Life and China Southern Airlines dropping around 5%. China Life's H-shares fell slightly, by nearly 1%.

Bloomberg reports that Petrochina's A-shares fell 3.4%, despite the company stating that there hasn't been a "huge impact" on business because of the quake. The government has ordered oil wells shut in quake-hit areas. Another story reports that aluminum smelters in the province are doing alright, the Central China railway line remains closed, and a 5.5GW drop in power demand (1% of national generating capacity) because of downed transmission lines and damaged power plants.

The death toll from the quake is around 10,000, according to Xinhua

See Shanghaiist for continuous updates on the quake, including speedy translations from Chinese-language media, and information on donating to the Red Cross.