China’s economy continued to struggle on Thursday, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange halting trading for the second time this week. Trading only lasted 30 minutes before the Shanghai Composite fell by a staggering 7.21%. The drop resulted in the circuit breaker system closing down trading for the day.
Trading was suspended after the CSI 300 fell by 5% for 15 minutes, but resumed before ultimately closing at the 7% mark.
The Shanghai Composite Index closed today with a 7.32% loss, while the Nikkei 225 lost 1.78%.
The closing of the stock exchange caused markets around the world to falter. Australia further lowered sentiment after the country announced that building approvals for November dropped 12.7%, which is far below the 3.0% drop expected. Private housing approvals also dropped on the month 0.5%.
China also announced on Wednesday that its service sector fell to its lowest level in 17 months in the month of December.
North Korea also announced that the country detonated a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday, which has further lowered sentiment in Asia. Equities markets struggled greatly as a result, and the test caused a 5.1 magnitude earthquake to be triggered, according to the United States Geological Survey.
China’s yuan also suffered great losses on Thursday, with its largest drop in over five months.