Asian markets trade lower amid concerns over China’s economic outlook

24 Oct 2013 Evaluate

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in early deals on Thursday after Chinese money market rates surged, while worries over China’s economic outlook too weighed down sentiments. The nation’s benchmark seven-day repo rates opened nearly a full percentage point higher at 5% after the central bank let cash drain from the money market for a second week. However, losses remained capped as the country’s flash Markit/HSBC Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) stood at 50.9 in October, above September’s final reading of 50.2 and marking a seven-month high. Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei declined by over half a percent with investors pressing sales, tracking weak cues from Wall Street and on the dollar’s weakness against the yen.

Shanghai Composite dipped 5.20 points or 0.24% to 2,177.90, Hang Seng declined 204.27 points or 0.89% to 22,795.68, Nikkei 225 shed 94.22 points or 0.65% to 14,331.83, Straits Times slipped 4.20 points or 0.13% to 3,200.60, Seoul Composite decreased 1.97 points or 0.10% to 2,033.78 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 9.43 points or 0.11% to 8,384.19.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite rose 21.33 points or 0.47% to 4,567.83 and KLSE Composite was up by 5.71 points or 0.31% to 1,819.82.   

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