Following Turbulence in China, Asian Stocks Stumble and Rand Sinks

By Staff Reporter

Jan 10, 2016 10:01 PM EST

Tumble in Chinese stock market in last week trading triggered a slow start in 2016 for Asian market. Panic reaction in the market had caused a flop in global market.

Volatility in Chinese market started trading week of 2016. Circuit breaker system that was placed to prevent drop was caused a global financial panic on Thursday, after trading was halted twice. Chinese authority then suspended the circuit breaker, and market began to stabilize.

As a result, Asian market slipped in the first week of the year. MSCI Asia Pacific slid 0.9 percent while South Korea's KOSPI dropped 1 percent, the lowest since September. In Asian futures, FTSE China A50 Index futures slipped 2.2 percent and China's CSI 300 Index fell 0.6 percent as Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.1 percent.

Declining mining and energy stocks drove Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index plunged 2.1 percent, the lowest level since July 2013 as New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index slipping 0.8 percent, its fifth day consecutive drop. In the U.S.,S&P 500 futures declined 0.9 percent

Andrew Simmon, a portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management of Chicago branch told Reuters regarding the effect of trouble in China market, "What's going to come out of China is a short-term concern for the market, so maybe the ... decline we've seen is not quite enough,"

In the currency market, yen raised 0.5 percent to 116.70 per dollar to reach its strongers position since August. While following the turbulence in China stock market South African rand down 3 percent to 16.7931 per dollar the lowest in seven years. South Africa has a strong trade relation in China, and trouble in China's stock market had an eerie effect.

Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG Ltd told Bloomberg in an interview, "We unfortunately don't have any major pinpoint reasoning as to what's going on, but it's very scary." He also added on a conversation by phone, "South Africa is so heavily tied to China in terms of what it does that, could it be another signal that there's a risk off around a China hard landing?"

In the aftermath of the crisis, Chinese top securities regulator is rumored to resign from his position. Nikkei reported that on Friday Xiao Gang, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), offered to step down at an emergency State Council meeting. Sources said that his resignation would mark a highly significant step toward tackling tumbling share prices.

CSRC denied the rumor and said that Xiao Gang is also heading up an internal working group. Nevertheless, the China's government decided to reshuffle top financial regulatory personnel before the National People's Congress on March. That may signal that Xiao was to be discharged from his post.

As a dominant force in the world economy, China determined to strenghten its fundamental to trigger a rebound. The market is waiting for further action from Chinese government to revive the slowdown of the economy.

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