FTSE 100 down about 1% as markets react to weak data from world’s second biggest economy
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Last modified on Mon 16 Aug 2021 08.23 EDT
Global share prices have fallen after a surprisingly sharp slowdown in China dented confidence in a vaccine-led recovery.
After a recent prolonged rise, stock markets reacted negatively to signs that tougher credit conditions and fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 were weighing on the world’s second biggest economy.
London’s FTSE 100 was down about 1% in morning trading after Beijing released much softer data for Chinese industrial production and retail sales.
The sensitivity of commodity stocks to Chinese demand meant Glencore, Anglo American, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto were all among the 10 biggest fallers on the FTSE 100, which was down 69 points at 7,149 points at noon.
Share prices on the Frankfurt, Paris and Milan exchanges were all lower, while the Euro Stoxx 600 index – which measures share prices on 17 separate European markets – was down by 0.6% after hitting record highs last week.
There were signs from stock futures that Wall Street – where sentiment may also be affected by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan – would open lower.
News that refining activity in China had fallen pushed oil prices lower amid concerns that Beijing’s attempts to rein in credit growth was leading to weaker demand for crude. Yields on government bonds dropped as investors reassessed the prospects for global growth and inflation. Yields tend to rise when there is an expectation of strong growth and upward pressure on prices.
Although China’s industrial production was 6.4% higher in July than a year earlier, the annual rate of increase declined from 8.3% in June and was well down on the 7.9% financial market consensus. The global shortage of computer chips meant car production was down 8.5%
Similarly, annual retail sales growth dropped from 12.1% in June to 8.5% in July, well below the consensus forecast for a 10.9% increase. Sales of smartphones were up only 0.1% after a jump of 15.9% in the year to June.
Fu Linghui, a spokesman for China’s National Bureau of Statistics, said the country’s recovery remained uneven because of sporadic outbreaks of the coronavirus, and natural disasters. “The domestic economic recovery still faces many challenges, and constraints on production increased,” he said.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China analyst for Capital Economics, said the slowdown could only partly be blamed on pandemic flare-ups and floods in central regions of the country.
“Investment spending and industrial activity, which are less sensitive to virus restrictions, also weakened markedly, suggesting that tighter credit conditions are biting,” he said.
“The drop back in consumption should reverse once the virus situation is brought under control and restrictions are lifted. But we think the slowdown elsewhere will deepen over the rest of the year.”
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