Europe rises but Asia falls on China fears – Global Report
EUROPEAN stocks rose yesterday, countering a fall in Asian markets led by weakness in China following a four-day break there.
However, volumes were relatively light due to the closure of US markets for the Labor Day holiday.
In Asia, there was choppy trade with investors cautious after the wild swings seen in Chinese equities.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics revised its annual economic growth rate for 2014 yesterday to 7.3 per cent from the previously released figure of 7.4 per cent.
An initial rally for the Shanghai Composite – trading again after a three-day break to mark the anniversary of the end of the Second World War – ebbed away, despite efforts by policymakers and regulators to keep the mood calm, and the index finished 2.6 per cent lower.
Uncertainty over the outlook for the mainland economy helped to drag Hong Kong down 1.2 per cent, while the FTSE Asia Pacific index shed 1.3 per cent.
But the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo bounced off a seven-month low to finish 0.4 per cent higher.
The pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 equity index, meanwhile, finished 0.5 per cent higher after falling three per cent last week – culminating in a 2.5 per cent drop on Friday after US jobs data failed to provide a clear steer on whether or not the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this month.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended around 0.5 percent higher.
Germany’s Dax was up 0.7 per cent to 10,108.61 points, the CAC 40 in France rose 0.59 per cent to 4,549.64. However, the Ibex in Madrid fell 0.17 per cent to 9,805.40 points.