01/17/2024 – 6:13
By Sergio Caldas*
São Paulo, 01/17/2024 – Asian stock markets closed lower this Wednesday, following disappointing economic data from China and amid renewed concerns about the expected downward trajectory of interest rates in the US.
Leading losses in the region for the second day in a row, the Hang Seng suffered a 3.71% drop – the biggest since October 2022 – in Hong Kong, to 15,276.90 points. In mainland China, the falls were also significant: 2.09% for the Shanghai Composite, at 2,833.62 points, and 2.54% for the less comprehensive Shenzhen Composite, at 1,698.70 points.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.40% in Tokyo to 35,477.75 points, after reaching a new intraday high since February 1990, while South Korea's Kospi fell 2.47% in Seoul. at 2,435.90 points, and Taiex fell 1.07% in Taiwan, at 17,161.79 points.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 5.2% annually, in line with the forecast of analysts consulted by FactSet. The result, however, was below the consensus of the The Wall Street Journal (+5.6%) and Reuters (+5.3%).
In the entire year 2023, Chinese GDP also grew 5.2%, confirming what Prime Minister Li Qiang had anticipated in a speech at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland.
Numbers for Chinese retail and the country's real estate sector, which has been facing a serious crisis for years, also disappointed.
The outlook for basic interest rates in the US is also worrying. Yesterday, a director of the Federal Reserve (Fed, the American central bank) predicted that American interest rates will fall less this year than previously imagined. In reaction, the New York stock exchanges ended Tuesday's trading session lower.
In Oceania, the Australian stock market was also in the red today, but the loss was much more moderate. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.29% in Sydney, to 7,393.10 points, in its fourth consecutive negative session.
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*With information from Dow Jones Newswires
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