chinese stocks dive as calm shatters
naky
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2015-08-18 14:47:47
The Shanghai Composite has fallen by more than 8 per cent in intra-day trade, putting the index on course for its biggest one-day drop since 2007.
The Chinese benchmark had been in negative territory all day, but sank sharply in late trade. It's moving fast, but at pixel time, it was down 8.1 per cent at a low of 3,740.9, which puts it on track for the biggest one-day fall since a 8.23 per cent drop on April 6, 2007, writes Peter Wells.
It is the first time the index has fallen by more than 5 per cent in intra-day trade since July 8, when Chinese authorities stepped up their efforts to stop a multi-week rout that had wiped more than $3tn from the value of China-listed companies.
The slide was the Shanghai index’s second-biggest one-day fall on record and the largest percentage point drop since February 2007. The Shenzhen Composite sank 7 per cent, and the ChiNext start-up board dropped 7.4 per cent.
Large-cap financial and raw materials stocks tumbled with China Life Insurance, Bank of Communications and China Shenhua Energy each down by the daily 10 per cent limit. PetroChina, the country’s largest company by index weighting, lost 9.6 per cent while ICBC, the biggest mainland bank, shed 5.3 per cent.
More than 1,700 stocks closed limit down while only 78 rose.
Erwin Sanft, China equity strategist at Macquarie, noted some negative commentary from domestic brokers that might have caught investors off guard.
“But behind that is the continued pressure on the market as there is still an unwind that is needed on margin finance,” he added, a reference to the use of borrowed money to fund share trading.