Growth fears hit global stocks
singapore — European and Asian indexes slipped on Thursday after Apple, the world’s largest technology company, downgraded its sales projections citing lacklustre Chinese demand.
US stock indexes fell sharply on Thursday morning.
Apple’s stock plunged 8.9 per cent and other big exporters including technology and machinery companies also took big losses.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 373 points, or 1.6 per cent. The S&P 500 index dropped 33 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 2,487 at 9.55am Eastern time. The Dow slid to 22,972. The Nasdaq composite, which has a high concentration of tech stocks, retreated 124 points, or 1.9 per cent, to 6,541. The smaller and more US-focused Russell 2000 dipped 17 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 1,338.
In Europe, France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.5 per cent to 4,664.22 and Germany’s DAX was 0.6 per cent lower at 10,519.83. Britain’s FTSE 100 index fell 0.2 per cent to 6,722.47.
Most Asian markets racked up more losses after tumbling on the first trading day of 2019. Apples revenue downgrade cast a pall on technology shares, pulling South Korea’s Kospi 0.8 per cent lower to 1,993.70. Taiwan’s benchmark fell 0.7 per cent to 9,492.42.
The Shanghai Composite index dropped less than 0.1 per cent to 2,464.36 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up 0.3 per cent at 25,064.36.
Australia’s S&P-ASX 200 bucked the regional trend and added 1.4 per cent to 5,633.40.
The Abu Dhabi index was up 0.7 per cent. The Dubai index inched up 0.2 per cent.
Weakness in the Indian currency pulled the benchmark Sensex down by 378 points on Thursday. The S&P BSE Sensex settled 377.81 points or 1.05 per cent lower at 35,513.71 after touching an intra-day high of 35,999.66 and a low of 35,475.57.
The NSE Nifty50 closed at 120.25 points or 1.11 per cent down at 10,672.25.
The Indian rupee weakened by 7 paise on Thursday to trade at 70.24 per dollar, against the previous close of 70.17 per dollar.
“Doubling down on Asia markets for a second day [on Thursday] would be the latest downward revision in Q1 guidance from tech giant, Apple,” Jingyi Pan of IG said in a market commentary. —