Asian stocks declined, with a regional measure falling to its lowest level in more than four years, as concern about China’s growth outlook continued to fan a global selloff.
The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index tumbled 2 percent to 374.51 as of 4:04 p.m. in Hong Kong, heading for its lowest close since October 2011, after sinking 7.1 percent last week. Markets in Tokyo are closed Monday for a holiday. Turmoil in China’s markets rippled around the world in the first week of 2016 as the securities regulator scrapped an equity circuit breaker after just four days and the central bank set a weaker yuan fix for eight days in a row, escalating fears of a global currency war.
“The market is concerned about China’s financial stability, with investors looking for more visibility about how the new foreign exchange regime is going to work,” Matthew Sherwood, head of investment strategy at Perpetual Ltd. in Sydney, which manages about $21 billion, said by phone. “People are also quite nervous about the Chinese economic outlook. China is certainly slowing on a very gradual path down. A lot of people are fearing a hard landing is in play, but that’s not our central scenario. There’s a lot of policy ammunition left in China.”
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