HONG KONG- Asian shares stayed stuck at seven-month lows on Wednesday, as markets continued to digest a storm in Chinese equity markets, while currency markets were quiet with traders wary of placing large bets prior to the outcome of a Federal Reserve meeting.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.31 percent in morning trading. Markets in Hong Kong and mainland China stabilized after a sharp sell-off in the previous session, balancing declines elsewhere in Asia.
Asian shares have fallen in each of the three previous sessions as regulatory crackdowns in China roiled stocks in the technology, property and education sectors, leaving international investors bruised.
Chinese state-run financial media urged calm first thing on Wednesday morning, and while Chinese shares swung back and forth in early trading, they did not repeat the sharp plunges seen earlier in the week.
Chinese blue chips were last flat, having had a volatile start to the day, and the Hong Kong benchmark gave up early gains to fall 0.24 percent. Both were still near eight-month lows.
The embattled Hang Seng Tech Index was last flat, also after a volatile morning, a day after touching its lowest level since the index’s creation in July 2020. It is still down about 40 percent from its February high.
Japan’s Nikkei slid 1.15 percent to a six-month low, with shares in SoftBank Group, a major investor in Chinese tech, falling 3.68 percent.
US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were flat.
“China and the Fed are the two key things for today,” said Tai Hui, chief market strategist for Asia Pacific, at JPMorgan Asset Management.
“We are still trying to digest the news from China, what’s going to be new is how the Fed view the latest round of (COVID-19) infections and whether they need to readjust their view,” he said. – Reuters
