Asia: China still down, but regional indices rebound

Chinese shares closed lower on Tuesday while other Asia stocks regions began to rebound from “Black Monday.”

The Shanghai Composite was down 7.63%, despite the People’s Bank of China injecting a $24bn boost to ease the pressure the index was under.

SpreadEx financial analyst Connor Campbell said the cash boost was not large enough, and the index ducked below 3,000 for the first time in eight months.

“The Chinese central bank remains a bungling bit-player in this nightmare, instead of the reassuring white knight the markets need it to be, something that could cause losses to return if the same price-eroding fears over the bank’s ineffectualness begin to creep in once again,” Campbell added.

Blue-chip heavyweights which fell by the daily maximum allowable of 10% on Tuesday, included property developers Poly Real Estate and Shanghai Shimao, as well as brokerage houses such as Citic Securities and Haitong Securities.

Shares of Shanghai-listed PetroChina, the China’s biggest company by market value, also slumped 10%.

The smaller Shenzhen index was down 7.04% while the start-up focused Chinext was down 7.52%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 3.96%, despite staging a comeback earlier in the day. The yen was at ¥119.47 to the dollar.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.59%, while the Sensex was down 1% and Singapore’s Straits Times index was down 1.29%.

Down under the ASX 200 was up 2.72%, after Australia’s treasurer Joe Hockey sought to earn concerns by saying there was “no crisis.”

After a roller coaster morning, a sharp rebound in banking and mining stocks lifted the ASX out of the red.

In New Zealand the NZX 50 rose 0.1% to somewhat reverse Monday’s biggest drop in four years. Shares dual listed in Australia, such as Westpac and ANZ banks rose.