After a brief "don't fight the PBOC" three days of releveraging, China margin debt declined once again to 4-month lows. An opening pop - as is now ubiquitous has faded in FTSE China A50 futures but CSI-300 futures (which expire today and are this subject to some 'odd' behavior) are holding modest gains, despite a quarter of Chinese stocks remain halted. For those tempted back in to the deep end of global equity risk, we offer what must go down as the Baghdad Bob quote of the year, from the Chairman of HKEX, "China's stock market is the safest in the world."
Some context on the decline and its massively manipulated bounce (which is now fading fast)...
FTSE China A50 Futures opened a smidge higher but are leaking lower (while CSI-300 Futures are holding 1% gains pre-open)
Deleveraging is happening... but has a long way to go...
- *SHANGHAI MARGIN DEBT FALLS TO FOUR-MONTH LOW
China margin debt is down 37% from its highs...
And then there's this utter bollocks...
- *CHINA STOCK MARKET IS "SAFEST" IN WORLD, HKEX CHAIR LI SAYS
Yep, looks totally "safe"...
Finally, on China, we leave you with Credit Suisse's Andrew garthwaite: "Our concern is that a triple bubble in housing, credit and investment comes with the significant risk of a hard landing."
* * *
In other news, Japan has its fair share of disasters...
Sharp is the worst-performing stock on Japan's benchmark average this morning after the Nikkei newspaper said the electronics giant is likely to lose big in the April to June quarter.
As the Nikkei 225 struggles to gain for a fifth day - up 0.1 per cent - Sharp shares are down 3 per cent in the first hour of trade.
And Korea...
And Samsung Heavy is down 17% to 7 year lows - this is the biggest drop since 1994
Charts: Bloomberg





