By Kim Son-woo | Published April 21, 2020 08:52:52A lot has happened since the Chinese central bank’s announcement on April 7 that it would launch a new bond-buying programme.
The central bank also announced that it has bought bonds of state-owned companies and a range of other financial institutions, including local government bonds and foreign currency-backed bonds, as well as state-backed mortgage-backed securities.
The programme, announced in a series of posts on the social media site Weibo, also announced the creation of a new “crisis fund”, the National Credit Investment Fund, which is to help support the Chinese economy through economic reforms and financial and fiscal stimulus.
The move was a big boost for the stock market.
A week ago, China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite index was down 1.5 per cent, its biggest one-day fall in nearly three months.
However, after the announcement, the Shanghai Composite fell 7.3 per cent to 8,082.50 points, while the benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 5.7 per cent.
The Nikkeilin fell 3.5 percent and the Hang Seng index fell 2.2 per cent on Friday, while Shanghai’s benchmark CSI300 index lost 5.6 per cent after a 1.9 per cent fall.
The Shanghai Composite, which was down by 6.7 percent, closed at 3,851.62 points, the Nikkeis index at 3 and the Seng at 2.
The Nasdaq composite, which closed at 4,639.10 points, was down 7.5% at 5,831.94 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.6% to 20,743.86.
The S&P 500 fell 1.2% to 2,891.24.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index dropped 0.2 percent to 2.45, while Facebook fell 0.3 percent to 5.29%.
The tech index, which had been up by 5.5 points, fell 2% to 6,879.09 points.
For the second consecutive day, the index closed lower on the day, falling 0.5 percentage points to 18,965.04 points.
In other markets, stocks fell and yields rose.
The Hong Kong dollar was trading 0.8 per cent lower at 1,566.23, while Japanese yen was 0.7% lower at 109.12 yen.
The US dollar was up 0.1 percent at 98.10 yen.
Meanwhile, the euro was up 1.1% at $1.0845.
In Australia, the Australian dollar fell 0,6 per a penny to 1.2994 per Australian dollar, after hitting a record low on April 6 of 1.3330 per Australian Australian dollar.
The US dollar index, down 1% on the previous day.