After being closed on Monday and Tuesday, Japanese stocks returned for trading on Wednesday only to fall sharply, the Nikkei 225 plunging 2.9 percent.
Weak economic data on Wednesday did not help investor sentiment in Japan. Markit's services PMI for Japan fell to 46.4 in April, indicating contraction, from 52.2 in March. The composite index came in at 46.3, down from 52.8 in the previous month.
Chinese stocks also fell on Wednesday, the Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.9 percent after the Markit/HSBC services PMI was reported to have fallen to 51.4 in April from 51.9 in March.
The weaker trend in economic data extended into Europe, where a report on Wednesday showed that German factory orders fell 2.8 percent in March.
No comments:
Post a Comment