Shares in China fell by a small margin today as trading resumed after the lunar new year.
The SHCOMP, China’s main share index, fell more than 1% as traders returned from the annual holiday. This is a modest loss as compared to other indexes in the region such as Japan’s Nikkei225, which received a multi-day battering last week, slashing itself by more than 1500 points.
The CSI300, China’s main industrial index based in Shenzhen, was also down 1.6% in afternoon trade. The Shenzhen index is generally seen as a good indicator of China’s slowing manufacturing and industrial sector.
The slide in Chinese stocks is a result of weak sentiment and underwhelming global economic data coming out across the globe. As banks tumble, indexes around the world slide and the price of commodities remain depressed, many had expected the Chinese index to open to a serious sell off today.
Once again, China has proved unpredictable, with today’s modest sell off leaving investors scratching their heads as they try to figure out how to predict what’s going to happen next in China.