Sun, Nov 29, 2015 page15

• Asian stocks down on Chinese probes

  BEIJING BUST: China’s markets tumbled the most since this year’s crash, as its two biggest brokerages, Citic Securities and Haitong Securities, came under investigation

  • Bloomberg
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  Asian stocks declined, with a regional gauge heading for a one-week low, as Chinese shares tumbled the most since the depths of this year’s rout as some of the largest brokerages disclosed regulatory probes and the nation’s industrial profits fell.

  The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.9 percent to 133.34 at 4:41pm Hong Kong time, heading for the lowest close since Nov. 18 and a 0.9 percent decline this week. The Shanghai Composite Index sank 5.5 percent, the most since August, as China’s biggest brokerages, Citic Securities Co (中信證券) and Haitong Securities Co (海通證券) plunged amid investigations for alleged rule violations. The crackdown in the finance industry comes as the government widens an anti-corruption campaign and seeks to assign blame for a US$5 trillion stock-market plunge.

  “The sharp decline will raise questions whether the authorities’ confidence that we are seeing stability in the Chinese markets may be a tad premature,” Singapore-based IG Asia Pte strategist Bernard Aw said. “The rally since the August collapse was not fundamentally supported. The removal of restrictions for large brokers to sell and the IPO resumptions may not have been announced at an opportune time.”

  Citic Securities said it received a notice from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on Thursday saying it will be investigated because it allegedly violated regulations on the supervision and administration of securities firms, while Haitong Securities is also being probed, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

  China’s economy is still showing a muted response to waves of monetary and fiscal easing as of the half-way mark for the last quarter of the year, some of the earliest indicators for this month suggest.

  Profits at the country’s industrial companies declined 4.6 percent last month from a year ago, data released by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics today showed.

  “With regards to China, our sense is that there are still significant risks to the global economy, but on the other side, that they’ve got the policy ammunition to dampen that risk,” Auckland-based First NZ Capital Group Ltd director of economics and strategy Chris Green said.

  Japan’s TOPIX dropped 0.5 percent. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 0.3 percent, falling from a three-month high. The nation’s consumer prices excluding fresh food fell 0.1 percent last month from a year earlier, in line with economists’ estimates, according to a report released before the stock market opened Friday.

  A measure of inflation that also excludes energy rose 0.7 percent. The jobless rate fell to 3.1 percent, the lowest since 1995.

  The TAIEX fell 1.02 percent to 8,398.4. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index sank 1.9 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI lost 0.1 percent. Singapore’s Straits Times Index declined 0.7 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slipped 0.2 percent, while New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 Index added 0.2 percent.

  Next week sees policy decisions from the Reserve Bank of Australia and European Central Bank, before theUS reports payrolls figures for this month. The International Monetary Fund’s board meets on whether to grant the yuan reserve-currency status, and OPEC members will gather in Vienna.

  “Traders still need to take into consideration that the investment landscape could change significantly next week,” IG Ltd chief markets strategist Chris Weston said in an emailed note. “Moves in the US dollar hold the key for all risk assets.”
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