Asia shares, crude down on Greek tragedy
The surprising results from Greece’s referendum on July 5 sent markets into a tailspin after Asian stock exchanges opened today, with US crude suffering the biggest decline. The euro too lost value against the US dollar, but not dramatically.
At around noon, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index -3.5%, Sydney’s ASX -1.4%, Seoul’s Kospi -1.9%, Mumbai’s Sensex -0.8%, Taipei’s Taiex -0.8%, Singapore’s Strait Times Index -0.78% and Thailand’s SET Index -1.17%. Tokyo’s Nikkei closed -2.01%,
However, the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.3% after Beijing unleashed an unprecedented series of support measures over the weekend to stave off the prospect of a full-blown crash that was threatening to destabilise the world’s second-biggest economy.
Globally, rising bets on a “Grexit” (Greece leaving the euro zone) are likely to keep markets under pressure despite Athens denying that Sunday’s “no” vote would in fact lead to an exit from the common currency zone.
Brent crude traded down 1.3% to $59.35 a barrel. Worsening the bearish mood was data last week showing that US drilling rose for the first time after 29 weeks of declines, Reuters reported. Demand for safe-haven gold fizzled out by the late morning session, with the precious metal trading flat after jumping as much as 0.6% earlier.
European Union President Donald Tusk called a euro-area summit for Tuesday, July 7, while the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) is due to talk today on whether to keep supporting Greece’s lenders.
Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis held an emergency meeting with the country’s top bankers and the governor of the Greek central bank last night in Athens, with the Greek government expected to make an official request to the ECB for more emergency liquidity. In the morning of July 6, he announced his resignation, referred to as “Varoufexit” by some commentators.
On July 20, Greece is due to pay 3.5 billion euros to the ECB which is now keeping Greek banks in a state of suspended animation: alive, but unable to get their hands on additional emergency funds beyond the €89 billion they have already taken.
But if Greece misses the July 20 payment, the ECB is widely expected to cut them off entirely. If that were to happen, they would collapse and the government would have to print a new currency to restart them.
The surprising results from Greece's referendum on July 5 sent markets into a tailspin after Asian stock exchanges opened today, with US crude suffering the biggest decline. The euro too lost value against the US dollar, but not dramatically. At around noon, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index -3.5%, Sydney's ASX -1.4%, Seoul's Kospi -1.9%, Mumbai's Sensex -0.8%, Taipei's Taiex -0.8%, Singapore's Strait Times Index -0.78% and Thailand's SET Index -1.17%. Tokyo's Nikkei closed -2.01%, However, the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.3% after Beijing unleashed an unprecedented series of support measures over the weekend to stave off the prospect of...
The surprising results from Greece’s referendum on July 5 sent markets into a tailspin after Asian stock exchanges opened today, with US crude suffering the biggest decline. The euro too lost value against the US dollar, but not dramatically.
At around noon, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index -3.5%, Sydney’s ASX -1.4%, Seoul’s Kospi -1.9%, Mumbai’s Sensex -0.8%, Taipei’s Taiex -0.8%, Singapore’s Strait Times Index -0.78% and Thailand’s SET Index -1.17%. Tokyo’s Nikkei closed -2.01%,
However, the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.3% after Beijing unleashed an unprecedented series of support measures over the weekend to stave off the prospect of a full-blown crash that was threatening to destabilise the world’s second-biggest economy.
Globally, rising bets on a “Grexit” (Greece leaving the euro zone) are likely to keep markets under pressure despite Athens denying that Sunday’s “no” vote would in fact lead to an exit from the common currency zone.
Brent crude traded down 1.3% to $59.35 a barrel. Worsening the bearish mood was data last week showing that US drilling rose for the first time after 29 weeks of declines, Reuters reported. Demand for safe-haven gold fizzled out by the late morning session, with the precious metal trading flat after jumping as much as 0.6% earlier.
European Union President Donald Tusk called a euro-area summit for Tuesday, July 7, while the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) is due to talk today on whether to keep supporting Greece’s lenders.
Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis held an emergency meeting with the country’s top bankers and the governor of the Greek central bank last night in Athens, with the Greek government expected to make an official request to the ECB for more emergency liquidity. In the morning of July 6, he announced his resignation, referred to as “Varoufexit” by some commentators.
On July 20, Greece is due to pay 3.5 billion euros to the ECB which is now keeping Greek banks in a state of suspended animation: alive, but unable to get their hands on additional emergency funds beyond the €89 billion they have already taken.
But if Greece misses the July 20 payment, the ECB is widely expected to cut them off entirely. If that were to happen, they would collapse and the government would have to print a new currency to restart them.
