Shares in Shanghai tumbled for a second day, pushing losses on the market’s benchmark index to 5.6% in two sessions, with comments by state-media failing to prop up the market on Wednesday, while Australia’s market fell to a three-month low amid worse-than-expected earnings from the country’s largest bank.
Tokyo remained closed for a holiday Tuesday.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell another 114.63 points, or 0.4%, to 27,640.91, its fifth straight day of losses. Even so, the market is still up 17% year-to-date.
In Australia, where the central bank Tuesday cut interest rates for the second time this year and to a record low of 2%, the S&P ASX 200 finished lower.
A modestly worse-than-expected quarterly update from Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd., the country’s largest bank by market value, fueled worries that a years-long run of record profits and relatively generous dividends from the big lenders is nearing an end.
That added to sentiment already dampened in the wake of a less-dovish-than-anticipated statement on Tuesday from the Reserve Bank of Australia, which cut its key cash rate to a record low but dropped its line that further easing may be appropriate over the period ahead, leading some economists to suggest the easing cycle was ending.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia slumped 5.9% after it reported third-quarter cash earnings flat from a year earlier, with pressure still on its margins from competition and expenses growth on the rise, which some investors said suggests tougher conditions ahead for the industry in Australia. The falls leave the shares down 14% from an all-time closing high in March.
CHINA
The Shanghai CSI 300 gave back 43.51 points, or 1%, to 4,553.33
The market was up earlier but gave up gains in the afternoon, amid considerable volatility in the property sector, as worries about the likelihood of further stimulus from Beijing returned
Other analysts noted that financials, which had been holding up the market, reversed to the downside in the afternoon. Among the heavyweights, Bank of China Ltd. was down 1.7%.
Shanghai fell even after state-run Xinhua News Agency published four articles late Tuesday that characterized yesterday’s 4% plunge as a healthy adjustment as markets move to a “slow bull” phase.
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi index fell 27.65 points, or 1.3%, to 2,104.58
In Taiwan, the Taiex slid 1.93 points to 9,818.20
In Singapore, the Straits Times index subtracted 11.40 points, or 0.3%, to 3,459.79
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 subtracted 22.52 points, or 0.4%, to 5,765.27
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 134.36 points, or 2.3%, to 5,692.16
