The Hong Kong Market Is Getting Creamed Right Now

Business Insider

3 October, 2011

Rough start to the week in Asia, especially the dismal Hong Kong Market.

Here's a snapshot from Bloomberg of the Hang Seng.

In addition to the US and European issues, China has really come to the fore in recent days.

This is what the Guardian reports as of the beginning of trading in Europe

European debt crisis Live

9.08am: France, Italy and the Czech Republic are also miserable. France's is the lowest since July 2009. The Czech PMI is the lowest since Dec 09. 
The UK's Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI, which is due out at precisely 09:28 BST, is expected to show a decline to 48.6 in September from 49.0 in August.

8.53am: Oh dear more bad news, this time from Switzerland. The Swiss Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which is a measure of growth, has dropped for the first time since August 2009.

The September PMI dropped to 48.2 points from 51.7 points in August.

This is particularly concerning because Swiss companies "did not even make use of the purchasing opportunities presented by the Swiss franc", the statement from Swiss SVME purchasing managers' association and Credit Suisse, who compile the index, said.

This was the first time since August 2009 that the PMI has slipped out of the growth zone, which begins at 50 points.
The 'summer shock', in which we saw the Swiss franc appreciate to near-parity with the euro, the collapse of the stock markets and a steady stream of crisis reports from the euro zone, evidently had a paralyzing effect on the real economy.

Manufacturing PMI in Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands has also fallen as Joel Hills at Sky Tweets.

The market is now braced for PMIs from France, Italy, Germany and UK, which will all be out within the hour.

PMI across the whole of the Eurozone is expected to fall from 49 points to 48.4.8.18 am: Elsewhere in Europe, France's Cac is down 2.6%, Spain's Ibex has lost 2.5% and Italy's FTSE Mib is off 2.4%. Banks are, perhaps obviously, suffering the most across the Eurozone with the Euro Stoxx banking 600 index down 2.9%. 

All in not a great start to the new quarter, especially after the last quarter which finished on Friday was the worst since the dotcom bubble burst in 2002

8.08am: The FTSE 100 has opened down 118 points to 5,010, and has continued to fall heavily. The index is now down 130 points breaking the psychologically important 5,000 mark to 4,998.

Barclays is the biggest loser down 6%, with RBS (-5.5%) and Lloyds (-4.9%) also feeling the strain. There are currently no gainers.

7.56am: All eyes will be on Greece again today after the country's government said it would miss its deficit targets set just three months ago.

The country's draft budget, approved by the Greek cabinet last night, predicts a deficit of 8.5% of GDP for 2011, well short of the 7.6%.

The timing couldn't be much worse for Greece as the forecast came while the troika* were in Athens scouring the country's books to decide whether to approve the next loan tranche

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Greece's failure sent world markets tumbling, once again, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index losing 5% to its lowest since May 2009 and Japan's Nikkei closing down 1.8%.