Stock Markets Traumatized by the Protests Against China’s Strict Covid-19 Restrictions

Protestors are holding rallies in China against Covid-19 restrictions in China as a result of which trade markets in Europe started low.

European Indexes

In Germany, the trade index of DAX edged down at 0.4%. While the CAC and FTSE 100 indexes of France and the UK traded low at 0.5% and 0.7% respectively.

It is a rare sight to see people protesting in China. However, it is true that nationwide demonstrations have been taking place in China against the non-melting down strict Covid-19 restrictions.

On the contrary, the number of new Covid-19 infected cases has been rapidly increasing at least since the past week.

It has been more than three years now that Chinese people are living under strict pandemic restrictions. Since 2019, the restriction policy had been put in place and though reduced occasionally yet giving rise to rebellion.

China is the biggest exporter of goods into the European region and the majority of European industry relies on equipment imported from China.

Eyes on ECB’s President

On the other hand, investors in the European region will be closely monitoring what the ECB’s President has to share in terms of inflation data.

In October 2022, there had been a 10.6% increase in inflation through ECB had suggested that inflation wouldn’t increase by 2%. However, a record-breaking increase was made by ECB in which a 75 basis point hike was approved.

Investors are expecting a further increase in the rate in December and estimate that it would be around a 50 to 75 basis point increase.

Stock Market Crisis

Meanwhile, the stocks pertaining to Brenntag fell 10% low when the chemical distributor company of Germany made an important announcement.

In the announcement Brenntag suggested that it has been undergoing talks with Univar Solutions, USA wherein later shall be overtaking Brenntag.

In the London stock market, there was a 1.1% decline in the stocks belonging to Superdry i.e. the famous fashion brand of the UK.

Crude Oil Trade In Different Regions

The markets pertaining to Crude oil were also affected mainly because China is the biggest importer of crude oil. However, due to worsening Covid-19 conditions in China, the country’s demand for crude oil has shrunk significantly.

On other hand, G7 countries along with their European counterparts, haven’t been able to arrive at a consensus on capping Russian oil prices.

However, the earlier discussion between G7 and European officials suggested that the price would be capped at either $65 or $75 per barrel.

So far the decision hasn’t been made on the capping and the date of implementing the capping is nearing which is 5th December. It is expected that within this week the decision shall be made.

US crude futures too started off low at least by 2.8%. Similarly, Brent’s contract also failed to start off the day on the positive side and instead too fell low by 2.8%.