Overseas Trading: China Stocks Plunge, Pacing Global Sell-Off

Concerns about the state of China's economy are hitting markets across Asia and Europe

Aug 24, 2015 at 8:20 AM

It was another brutal day for Asian markets, with China's Shanghai Composite dropping 8.5% -- and wiping out all of its 2015 gains -- to notch its biggest single-day percentage plunge since 2007. Fears of an economic slowdown ramped up, even as Beijing gave local government pension funds the green light to invest in equities.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 5.2%, and South Korea's Kospi gave back 2.5% to close at a two-year low. Finally, the Japanese Nikkei fell 4.6% as a stronger yen weighed on exporters, and as Economics Minister Akira Amari warned that China's turmoil "may spread" to other regional economies.

The sell-off in Asia is weighing on European bourses, which are sharply lower at midday. Also contributing to the turmoil across the pond is oil's ongoing slump. At last check, London's FTSE 100 is off 3.7%, the French CAC 40 is down 4.2%, and Germany's DAX has skidded 4.7%.

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