Global stock markets sank Tuesday, led by a plunge in the Shanghai index, after a renewed slump in the price of oil kept investors on edge about the world economy.
China's Shanghai Composite closed down 6.4 percent to finish at 2,749.78, the lowest since December 2014. The late burst of selling came after the index traded down 2 percent for most of the session, giving up all of Monday's gains. Year-to-date, the index is already 22 percent lower. The Shenzhen Composite was also over 7.1 percent lower.
News that the People's Bank of China conducted its biggest daily open markets operation in three years failed to lift sentiment. The central bank injected 360 billion yuan into money markets on Tuesday in an attempt to boost liquidity ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Image: Concerned Chinese investors look at a stock index and prices of shares at a stock brokerage house
Concerned Chinese investors look at a stock index and prices of shares at a stock brokerage house in Huaibei city on Tuesday. Xie zhengyi / Imaginechina
Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 2.4 percent to 16,708.90. South Korea's Kospi slipped 1.2 percent to 1,871.69. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 2.6 percent at 18,831.87. The pan-European STOXX 600 dropped 1.6 percent.
The stock market moves in China have stoked concern about the health of the world's second-largest economy, as well as consumer confidence, hitting many stocks exposed to the country's market.
"It's just another in a long series of slumps that we have seen in this market, and it's not the last we will see either because the market is still overpriced," said Michael Every, who heads Financial Markets Research, Asia-Pacific, at Rabobank. "And too many people want to get their money out. It's been a bubble since it began last summer."
Read more:
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/global-stocks-sink-amid-china-doom-fears-n504301No idea if it's important or not.
