Shanghai sinks (-7%) and drag downward all Asian markets – Reuters

          

Start in the worst of all worlds 2016 of the Asian markets and it does so because of the bearish pressure coming from China. On the macroeconomic front, in December, it fell to surprise manufacturing activity in Beijing, which remains below the threshold of 50 that separates growth from contraction for the tenth consecutive month. The final reading on the previous month’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) prepared by Markit / Caixin amounted in fact to 48.2 points against 48.6 points in November (48.3 in October). The expectation of economists was instead to progress to 48.9 points. New Year’s Day the National Statistics Office had communicated to official data on manufacturing in Beijing, whose index had even improved in December to 49.7 points (in line with consensus Reuters) from 49.6 in November ( 49.8 points in October and September) which had been the weakest reading in three years. The volatility is, however, also driven by expectations for an acceleration of the IPO with the beginning of the new year. It will expire on 8 January, the stop imposed six-month placements in the summer in response to the heavy sell-off that hit on the lists. The result was a collapse in the Chinese markets. Shanghai and Shenzhen finished the trading day in advance, at around 7 Italian, after the Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 has briefly touched a loss of over 7% (a level that brings the automatic interruption of trade for the rest of the day). The Shanghai Composite closed when it was in decline of 6.85% when it came to lose more than 8% the Shenzhen Composite. Decline that moved even on the Hong Kong Hang Seng approaching the closure is declining by about 2.5% (much worse does the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, subindex reference for Corporate China on the square former British colony, which lost more than 4%).

The negative sentiment, due to concerns on the continuing slowdown of the Chinese economy, also affected other major markets in the region. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was down 3.06% with losses ranging from large stocks of chemical to those of retailers and consumer goods. On the macroeconomic front, continues to remain in the manufacturing expansion in Japan, remaining above the threshold of 50 that separates growth from recession for the eighth consecutive month. The final reading of the index PMI compiled by Markit / Nikkei relative to December was in fact unchanged at 52.6 points recorded in November, the highest level since March 2014, compared with 52.5 points in the preliminary reading (52.4 points in October). In Seoul, the Kospi posted a loss of 2.17% at the close of business.

The year was closed down for Wall Street, with the three major US indices that had lost about l ‘ 1% at its meeting on 31 December (only the Nasdaq managed to score progress throughout 2015). On the currency front, significantly lose ground against the US dollar, all major Asian currencies, while oil is in strong recovery due to tensions emerged over the weekend between Iran and Saudi Arabia (2015 ended with a decline of 30% for crude oil prices). And consequently the energy stocks skim an increase of 3% in Sydney (Santos closes rally by more than 4%), allowing the S & amp; P / ASX 200 to limit the damage: the loss of the index is in fact “only “0.48% at the close of trade.

(RR)