NexAsia PM: Chinese shares dip then move higher; Hong Kong trades flat

    Shanghai skyline looking down on the bund

    Good afternoon everyone. Chinese equity markets had a pretty good day today as the SHCOMP ended the day up 0.88% while Shenzhen gained another 1.82%. Hong Kong wasn’t as lucky though as the Hang Seng Index finished trading down 0.04%. Japan’s equity market meanwhile is currently closed.

    And now for the news:

    Happy ECB payment day, Greece. Greece is scheduled to pay the ECB $4.5 billion later today, a payment it could not afford to miss given that a default here requires the ECB to pull financing from Greek banks, ensuring a Grexit and forcing the world to see what Wolfgang Schauble looks like when he’s happy. Ekathimerini

    European investors skip China for South East Asia. As China’s stock market continues to scare away foreign investors, Europeans have begun looking at South East Asia for opportunities again, pointing out its stability as well as its more conservative valuations. “There’s now a moment where companies realize there’s Asia beyond China.” Bloomberg

    Eurex opening delayed. Technical issues are apparently delaying the Eurex futures and options from opening today, and at the time of writing, there doesn’t seem to be any indication that it might open at all. First the NYSE and now these guys, what’s up with that? Bloomberg

    Yanis Varoufakis wrote a book. Peppered with cherry-picked anecdotes and anti-German conspiracies, Varoufakis’ new book, The Global Minotaur, almost seems like a work of fiction in Giles Wilkes review. He does add however, that the ending may be quite far from it: “(d)espite this, his basic diagnosis may be correct.” Financial Times (paywall)

    Photo credit: sama093 via Flickr