Rating agencies’ warning batters equities across Asia

13 Dec 2011 Evaluate

The position squaring prolonged for yet another session in the Asian markets on Tuesday as sentiments got spooked in the region after global credit ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s said last week’s EU summit did little to avert the onerous debt debacle. On one hand Moody’s issued a fresh warning stating it will review the ratings of all EU countries in the first three months of 2012 and blamed “the continued absence of decisive policy measures”. While on the other, Fitch Ratings acknowledged that the summit had offered “incremental improvements” but cautioned that a detailed solution was not on offer which increased short-term pressure on Euro-zone sovereign credit profiles and ratings. Meanwhile, the overnight US markets too got pounded and failed to give any support to investors’ sentiments in Asia.

The benchmark in China plunged over a percent and got dragged to over two year low levels on the back of disappointing reports that Chinese housing transactions decreased in 27 out of 35 cities during the week of Dec 5-11. The equity index in South Korea remained the top laggard in the space with over one and half a percent cuts thanks to the hefty profit booking in export oriented sectors.

Shanghai Composite plunged 28.02 points or 1.22% to 2,263.52, Hang Seng sank 188.30 points or 1.01% to 18,387.36, Jakarta Composite shaved-off 39.31 points or 1.04% to 3,752.84, Nikkei 225 plummeted 124.68 points or 1.44% to 8,529.14, Straits Times declined 16.60 points or 0.61% to 2,685.12, Seoul Composite slumped 30.34 points or 1.60% to 1,869.42 and Taiwan Weighted shrank 74.60 points or 1.07% to 6,874.44.

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