Chinese share prices tumbled to close 7.73 percent down yesterday, the biggest single-day percentage loss in more than a year after the central bank announced new tightening measures, dealers said.
Shares fell across the board following Beijing’s latest move to tighten credit conditions, with a number of blue-chip stocks falling the maximum daily limit of 10 percent.
“Investors see the sudden 100-basis-point hike in reserve requirement ratio as a red flag on the economy and they are worried about corporate earnings in the second half,” Jacky Zhang of Capital Securities told Dow Jones Newswires.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers A and B shares, closed down 257.34 points at 3,072.33 on turnover of 60.7 billion yuan (US$8.8 billion).
The key index has fallen nearly 50 percent since a peak on Oct. 16 last year, almost giving up all the gains from a stamp duty cut this April. It was the index’s sharpest fall since June 4 last year, when it lost 8.26 percent in a day.
The Shanghai A-share Index lost 270.02 points at 3,223.17 on turnover of 60.3 billion yuan. The Shenzhen A-share Index shed 84.99 points at 973.43 on turnover of 28.1 billion yuan.
State media yesterday cited a senior economist as saying that China’s economy was likely to grow about 10 percent this year despite the global slowdown, and that the government expected to rein in inflation.
Growth will be slower than last year’s 11.9 percent, but China’s fundamentals remain strong, the National Bureau of Statistics’ chief economist Yao Jingyuan (姚景源) was quoted as saying by the official China Securities Journal.
He said a more open and market-based economy was among the driving forces in China’s economic growth that would continue to support expansion.
“The growth is fast, efficiency is improving and people’s livelihoods are becoming better,” he was quoted as saying.
However, he insisted China would not experience runaway inflation, without elaborating on the reasons.
“It’s impossible for hyperinflation to appear,” Yao said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS