MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Shanghai Stock Exchange closed at negative 8.5 percent, the Shenzhen Composite slid by 7.6 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell by 4.7 percent.
Total losses are estimated at equal to or below those last seen in 2007.
Triggered by a decline that erased all of China’s 2015 gains, Japan’s Nikkei and Topix, in addition to Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 and Taiwan’s Taiex, dropped over 4 percent.
All major regional currencies, with the exception of the Japanese yen, witnessed losses. The Australian and New Zealand dollars, as well as the Malaysian ringgit, fell by over 1.2 percent.
In Europe, Britain’s FTSE opened down nearly 3 percent, French CAC 40 dropped 3.5 percent and German DAX lost 3.1 percent. The Europe-wide FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down an average of 3 percent.
Global markets concluded their worst week in 2015 by closing time last Friday against a backdrop of major selloffs in China. Beijing devalued its currency a week prior in an attempt to halt selloffs and boost exports.
