It was yet another weak start for the World markets as the Asian, and the European markets continue to plunge.
Asian and Middle-East down
Among the Asian Indexes, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was the biggest loser that shed 1.45% to dip to a level of 19,237. Japan’s Nikkei 225 followed Hang Seng, down by 1.12% to 16,955. The Asian weakness was majorly driven by the less-inspiring chain of events that took place in the U.S.
Meanwhile, trading in China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index showed some revival of 0.44% to 2,913. The index had been red since the beginning of the year and has lost 18% so far.
As expected, the U.S. and the European Union lifted the sanctions imposed on Iran over the weekend, which has dragged the oil prices further down amidst fears that Iran will soon add to the global oil supply pile. These fears appear to be true as Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh committed 1.5 million barrels oil production by the end of this year.
More to come
The removal of sanctions has already caused a fury in stocks listed on the Middle East exchanges. Saudi Arabia was the worst sufferer as it saw its stocks decline by more than 5.4% on Sunday. Saudi Arabia is already a cause of turmoil inside the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), which has left member countries clueless about helping oil prices recover.
The Dubai exchange crashed 4.6% while securities in Qatar lost over 7.2%. Relief from sanctions kept Iranian stocks higher, which closed positive by 0.9% yesterday.
The crashing oil prices kept the U.S. markets in negative mode. Both Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index took a plunge of more than 2% each on Friday. Even Canada’s S&P/TSX 60 and Brazil’s Bovespa Stock Index echoed the concerns surround weak oil prices that dropped to a level below $28 per barrel.
European markets were no different, where Europe’s Euronext 100 dipped the most by 0.55%, followed by France’s CAC 40 that traded below 0.47%.