Beijing, China (BBN)-Asian stocks opened higher after turmoil on financial markets saw European and US indexes tumble following another oil price fall.
Thursday’s gains though did not recover the losses financial markets have seen over past days, reports BBC.
Investors remain worried over slumping oil prices and slowing growth in China.
On Wednesday, stocks had dived to their lowest levels since May 2009, with UK, French and Japanese shares falling more than 20 per cent below their 2015 highs.
Wall Street was not immune either.
The Dow Jones closed 1.6 per cent lower after a volatile trading day had seen stocks as much as 3 per cent down.
“Overnight markets in the Europe and US had a terrible day, where sentiments around a ‘drunk’ Asia spilled over,” market strategist Bernard Aw of IG explained in a note.
‘DEAD CAT BOUNCE’
Mainland China’s main market in Shanghai was slightly lower by 0.3 per cent, confirming international concerns over the world’s second largest economy.
Hong Kong, though, managed to come back slightly from the previous day’s record loss.
The Hang Seng index recovered 1.3 per cent after losing almost 4 per cent on Wednesday.
“Traders say there is not much conviction behind the latest rally,” the BBC’s Juliana Liu in Hong Kong said.
“In fact, the gains are rather modest and vulnerable to any hint of bad news. They think this could even be a so-called dead cat bounce, a term coined in the 1980s to describe a brief recovery in an otherwise declining market.”
Earlier in the day, Australia was the first to buck the share market rout, with the ASX/200 gaining 1,1 per cent.
The rise came despite Australia being particularly dependent on China’s economic performance as most of the commodities driving the economy down under are exported to China.
Japan and South Korea were also higher with the Nikkei up by 1.4 per cent while the Kospi rose by 0.5 per cent.
COMMODITY SLUMP
“Markets are just very uncertain about the slowdown in the Chinese economy,” Stephen Koukoulas, chief strategist TD Securities, told the BBC.
“We saw the official numbers, but frankly not many people put a lot of weight on the reliability of them and instead look at commodity prices as a barometer for how the Chinese economy is going.”
Oil prices have fallen below $28 a barrel, while coal, iron ore and other metals are all also in a drawn-out slump.
Many analysts have slashed their 2016 oil price forecasts, with Morgan Stanley analysts saying that “oil in the $20s is possible”, if China devalues its currency further.
Economists at the Royal Bank of Scotland say that oil could fall to $16, while Standard Chartered predicts that prices could hit just $10 a barrel.
“So, investors are particularly nervous about the loss of momentum in China,” Koukoulas said.
“The question is: Is it just an adjustment to some of the previous excesses or is this the start of something a little more nasty that will drag the economy to a much weaker growth path?”
BBN/SK/AD