China loses spot as world’s No.2 stock market — Bloomberg
SHANGHAI: China’s stock market has been overtaken as the world’s second-biggest by Japan’s, having been swiped this year by the threat of a trade war with the United States and slowing economic growth.
Data from Bloomberg News in intra- day trade on Friday showed the value of equities on the mainland had slipped behind those in their neighbouring country for the first time since taking the number-two spot in 2014.
The figures showed Chinese stocks were worth US$ 6.09 trillion, compared with US$ 6.17 trillion in Japan. The US market is worth US$ 31 trillion.
While global markets have been broadly hit by fears of a trade war between the world’s top two economies, Chinese equities are among the worst performers this year, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slumping more than 16 per cent since the start of January.
The pressure was ratcheted up this week when the White House said it was considering more than doubling threatened tariffs on a range of Chinese imports worth US$ 200 billion.
Washington has already imposed tariffs on US$ 34 billion worth of goods and is considering hitting another US$ 16 billion in the coming weeks.
“Losing the ranking to Japan is the damage caused by the trade war,” Banny Lam, head of research at CEB International Investment in Hong Kong, told
Losing the ranking to Japan is the damage caused by the trade war. Banny Lam, CEB International Investment head of research
Bloomberg News.
“The Japan equity gauge is relatively more stable around the current level but China’s market cap has slumped from its peak this year.”
Adding to the selling has been a string of data indicating economic growth is slowing, while Beijing has embarked on a drive to cut a worryingly large debt mountain as well as reduce pollution.
Also worrying investors are the yuan’s recent losses, with the currency at its lowest level against the dollar for more than a year, while traders have been mostly unmoved by government measures and promises to support the economy.
At the same time, Japanese corporate results have been broadly upbeat, providing some support to markets there, though the Nikkei is still slightly down this year. — AFP