China markets are literally green with envy this morning as elsewhere in Asia begins to recover, leaving the red giant to fall alone.
By mid-morning Tuesday (August 25), nearly every major stock market in Asia has turned positive. Among those indices still looking good in the early afternoon were:
- Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite (+1.95%)
- Singapore’s Straits Times (+83.%)
- Taiwan Weighted (+3.58%)
- Korea’s Seoul Composite (+1.06%)
Asian trading volumes were also up with the Hang Seng seeing a turnover during the morning of 158% of the 30-day average, the S&P/ASX 200 on 128%, and the Nikkei 225 on 150%.
And then there was China which bucked the positive trend in the most spectacular way. As investors lost faith in the government’s ability to remedy the rout, the markets continued to trundle down with the Shanghai Composite Index declining by around 6%.
But it is no time for Asian investors to be complacent. The recent surge is more a case of the shares bouncing back from an initial panic caused by frightened investors needlessly dumping their positions. Yukino Yamada, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities, told Reuters:
“There appears to be buyback as many markets look oversold after panicky selling in the last few days. Even the shares that had little business ties with China were sold.”
While some Asian’s markets may be breathing easier now, China’s markets are yet to bottom out. There is no telling how much further China has to fall – and who it will bring down with it before the end.
Photo: Look Into My Eyes