It fueled fears of slower growth in the world’s second-largest economy after figures released earlier this week showed manufacturing activity had shrunk for the 10th consecutive month in December while the service sector had grown at its weakest pace in 17 months.
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The drop was the biggest since August when the value was cut by five percent in a week – sparking weeks of global market turmoil over worries Beijing did not have a handle on its economic crisis.
Apple, the world’s largest publicly traded company, was among the tech stocks that declined.
European markets also fell. Germany’s DAX slid 2.3 percent, France’s CAC 40 gave up 1.7 percent, and Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 2 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 2.4 percent to 20,479.39 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 retreated 2 percent to 5,020.40.
Yesterday China’s second stock market shut-down occurred which marked the second since the new year.
“These include the resumption of fears over global growth following weak data from China… while increased geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and an unexpected nuclear test from North Korea have also encouraged investors to dodge away from riskier assets”.
This collapse has observers, economists, buyers, sellers, really pretty much everybody worrying about the state of China’s markets and currency.
SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI China will suspend its new stock market circuit breaker as of Friday, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges said on their websites on Thursday, after the mechanism sparked sharp falls in the country’s volatile markets. Those halts, which were triggered twice this week, are increasingly seen as inadequate measures to prevent volatility.
Energy stocks rose along with the price of oil. US crude dipped 6 cents to $33.91 a barrel in NY.
And given that the global economy is still growing, it’s hard to imagine that prices can remain this low for the foreseeable future.
If the Hushen 300 declines by over seven percent, trading is halted for the day. It’s down 3.1 per cent this year.
The price of copper fell 3.2 percent, however. Natural gas rose 11.5 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $2.382 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Chinese stocks have had a boom and bust ride over the past year.
Homebuilder KB Home slumped after its fourth-quarter results fell short of Wall Street estimates.
Some retail stocks performed well.
The market fell almost 2 percent more in just one minute after trading resumed and then was closed for the day. It sank 70 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $33.27 a barrel.
The euro rose to $1.0927 from $1.0788.
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THE Australian dollar has fallen to a three month low as concerns about the Chinese economy push the currency and share markets even lower this week.
