An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China, January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song
An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China, January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song

 

Only a day after leading risk assets higher, Chinese stocks have fallen heavily on Wednesday, dragging stocks, commodities and higher-yielding currencies lower across the region.

At the mid session break the Shanghai Composite sits down 1.37% at 2,966, giving back around half of the gains achieved on Tuesday.

The steep decline in China, not only on the benchmark index but others around the country, has weighed on other regional heavyweights such as the ASX 200, Nikkei 225 and Hang Seng in Hong Kong.

The decline in the latter is particularly ugly. It’s currently down 3.77%, extending its losses from April last year to 34%.

In unison with modest weakness in the offshore traded yuan, commodity markets are also under pressure with US crude futures tumbling to a fresh 13-year low below $28 a barrel.

Higher-yielding currencies are also trading lower, particularly the New Zealand dollar which tumbled earlier in the session following a weak inflation report for the December quarter.

The Australian dollar is also under the pump, falling 0.5% to .6869. Like Tuesday, it’s movements are closely aligned with those in Chinese stocks.

The chart below from Thomson Reuters reveals the somewhat mysterious relationship between the two so far on Wednesday.

AUD v SSEC Jan 20 2016
Australian dollar in red, Shanghai Composite in whie. Reuters

 

Here’s the Asia market scoreboard as at 3.40pm AEDT.

Stocks

  • ASX 200 4840.60 , -62.47 , -1.27%
  • Nikkei 225 16549.96 , -498.41 , -2.92%
  • Shanghai Composite 2966.66 , -41.08 , -1.37%
  • Hang Seng 18894.88 , -740.93 , -3.77%
  • KOSPI 1842.89 , -46.75 , -2.47%
  • Straits Times 2569.67 , -68.80 , -2.61%
  • S&P 500 Futures 1282.20 , 8.18 , 0.64%

Forex

  • USD/JPY 116.97 , -0.65 , -0.55%
  • USD/CNY 6.5967 , 0.0067 , 0.10%
  • AUD/USD 0.6869 , -0.0034 , -0.49%
  • NZD/USD 0.6377 , -0.0031 , -0.48%
  • AUD/JPY 80.35 , -0.84 , -1.03%
  • EUR/USD 1.0950 , 0.0045 , 0.41%
  • GBP/USD 1.4150 , -0.0005 , -0.04%
  • USD INDEX 98.831 , -0.1600 , -0.16%

Commodities

  • Gold $1,091.96 , $5.24 , 0.48%
  • Silver $14.03 , $0.01 , 0.06%
  • WTI Futures $27.66 , -$0.80 , -2.81%
  • Copper Futures ¥35,050 , -¥80 -0.23%
  • Iron Ore Futures ¥315.00 , -¥4.50 , -1.41%

10-Year Bond Yields

  • Australia 2.670%
  • New Zealand 3.225%
  • Japan 0.219%
  • Germany 0.555%
  • UK 1.690%
  • US 2.007%

As reported by Business Insider