China`s stock markets lose

  28 January 2016    Read: 1252
China`s stock markets lose
CHINESE stock markets nose-dived even further today to take total losses this month alone to an eye-watering
The Shanghai Composite Index finished down today by 0.5 per cent, after falling yesterday by 6.4 per cent.

The top stock market has now lost 22 per cent of its value since the start of 2016.

All of last year`s gains have been wiped and its worth is now at its lowest since 2014.

Policymakers are desperately trying to stop investors selling up by injecting cash into the market - but so far efforts have been in vain.

The heavy falls have wreaked havoc with stock markets around the world in January, with London`s FTSE 100 siting around three per cent lower than the start of the year.

The bluechip index was in the red again today by around 0.4 per cent.

Investors in China are terrified of the country`s slowing economy, which has been confirmed in recent weeks by a number of financial measures.

Furthermore, many have lost complete faith in authorities to handle the effects of the slowdown and stock market swings.

Policymakers allowed the currency to sharply weaken at the start of the year, taking many by surprise.

They then put a `circuit breaker` in place that automatically closed stock markets when losses breached seven per cent - only to suspend the mechanism after it had been activated twice.

Many Chinese investors were encouraged by the government to borrow money to invest in the stock market creating a huge bubble that peaked last year.

Some shareholders are now worried credit providers, seeing market falls, will ask for money back, prompting them to sell and worsening falls.

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