Member Article

Lower Chinese prices fail to boost markets

European stocks were anticipated to open marginally higher today, following inflation data out of China overnight that showed further evidence of a reduction in price rises, a scenario that could pave the way for further monetary easing to boost the economy. Consumer price inflation fell to a multi-year low, rising 0.1% month on month which equated to a 1.8% rise year on year. It shows that despite China’s slowing economy, authorities do have the resources and possible scope to ease monetary conditions.

Stock markets were once again quiet, trading in low volume with the FTSE struggling for direction in a very narrow trading range before finishing essentially flat at 5844. This was the same for most other major global indices. Amec was the biggest faller on the day, the oil & gas and mining industry engineering provider disappointing the market with its first half results. Profit margins at the bottom line were weaker than forecast and a negative tone from management led to various analyst downgrades, causing shares to fall by 4.8% by the close of trade. Shares in Standard Chartered were at the opposite end of the market, still clawing back some of its heavy losses with today’s 3.6% gain.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by James .