Those fears prompted a wild ride on China’s Shanghai Composite Index, which plunged as much as five per cent before eventually closing up 1.2 per cent.
Advertisement
Investors will also be looking for clues about when the U.S. central bank will begin to raise interest rates for the first time in years when the Federal Reserve releases minutes from its July meeting at 2 p.m. ET.
“The market will trade between 3,500 and 3,900 in the short term, as market sentiment is still weak”, said Zhang Yanbing, a Shanghai-based analyst at Zheshang Securities Co.
“State forces or measures are the main forces supporting the market right now”.
After taking on billions of yuan in Chinese shares over the past 11/2 months as part of a government-brokered market bailout, China Securities Finance Corp has started transferring some of that equity to a state investor primed to manage the assets. (CSF) to buy stocks on behalf of the government.
So what lies ahead for China’s stock market today? Stocks in Taiwan and the Philippines were also lower but markets in Singapore and New Zealand were stable.
But investors in Asia are also anxious about the volatility in China, Mr Aw noted, saying: “Although the Chinese government has moved to stabilise the yuan after the shock from the previous devaluation, people are still unsure where the currency will go”.
Analysts told dpa the instability was related to low public confidence in the economy, after recent figures showed drops in imports and exports.
Turmoil on Chinese stock exchanges yesterday hit global markets again, despite a late rally. Among them are nerves about the potential impact of an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. Brent crude, a benchmark for worldwide oils used by many U.S. refineries, dipped 20 cents at $48.61 per barrel.
China’s central bank provided 110 billion yuan ($17 billion) to 14 lenders on Wednesday.
The Dow is up 33.94 points, or 0.2 percent.
The number of traders with more than $1.6 million of shares in their accounts shrank by 28 percent in July, even as those with less than $15,000 rose by 8 percent, according to the nation’s clearing agency.
– Bangkok stocks rose 0.47 percent, or 6.51 points, to 1,379.12. Shares of the company are gaining more than 1 percent.
– Mumbai fell 1.16 percent, or 323.82 points, to 27,607.82.
Advertisement
– Taipei fell 1.90 percent, or 155.38 points, to 8,021.84. The drop weighed on energy companies in Asia, with Petrochina among one of the major losers in Shanghai, dropping 3.95 percent, while CNOOC lost 2.02 percent. In London, the FTSE index shed 0.5%, pushing the index into correction territory.
