European and US markets stumbled today at the end of a rocky week plagued by worries over China's slowdown, after Asia stocks rallied on the strength of US economy.
Global equities were hammered on Black Monday as risk- averse investors dumped shares on spreading panic that the flagging Chinese economy could spark a new world recession.
However, sentiment was soothed by Tuesday's interest rate cut from the People's Bank of China (PBoC) and by yesterday's bright gross domestic product (GDP) data in the United States.
"After a hectic rollercoaster of a week across financial markets... The moves by the PBoC and the better-than-expected US GDP have revived risk-taking to a degree," said London Capital Group analyst Brenda Kelly.
In Asia, Tokyo led the gains today, with Shanghai and several other markets in tow after the US reported a surprisingly strong new estimate of economic growth at 3.7 per cent for the second quarter.
"The Asian session took news from US equities and commodity markets well today... (but) there still does not seem to be the macro foundations for indices to fully recover from their corrections, as concerns over China and uncertainty over Fed rate hikes continue to linger," said IG Markets analyst Angus Nicholson.
Indeed, mid-afternoon trading in Europe Friday saw Frankfurt and Paris stocks falling by 0.68 per cent and 0.20 per cent respectively, after both began the day with gains.
London, meantime, edged 0.05 per cent higher in a see-saw session.
Wall Street opened slightly down, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.45 per cent lower at 16,579.16 points after 20 minutes of trade.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.30 per cent to 1,981.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.26 per cent at 4,800.22.
Yesterday's data, which showed the world's biggest economy grew at an annual rate of 3.7 per cent in the April- June quarter, buoyed markets that have been worried over the faltering Chinese economy, which accounts for some 13 per cent of global output.
Markets across the world saw recoveries, with the S&P 500 surging to its second straight gain on Wall Street yesterday.
In Asia today, Tokyo jumped 3.03 per cent higher and Shanghai gained 4.82 per cent. Seoul, Sydney, and several other Asian markets also rose.
Hong Kong, however, dropped 1.04 per cent despite making early gains.
Beijing has sought to mitigate global concerns in recent days by taking a series of measures, from boosting the amount its massive state pension fund can invest in stocks, to cutting interest rates and slashing reserve levels for banks.
