China pushed down to 3rd rank among world’s top stock markets as Trump tightens trade squeeze
03 Aug 2018
China, which emerged as the world’s second-largest stock market in November 2014 in terms of market valuation, was finally pushed to the third place on Friday, with Japan returning to the second spot.
Chinese stocks have taken a beating after trade relations with the US soured in recent days. President Donald Trump said the US might raise the tariff on imports from China to 25 per cent from the initial 10 per cent that it had announced. About $200 billion of Chinese goods are imported by the US.
When markets closed on Thursday, Chinese stocks were valued at a total of $6.09 trillion, whereas Japanese shares were worth $6.16 trillion. Of course, the US is the world’s largest stock market, with a valuation of over $31 trillion.
After overtaking Japan in November 2014, Chinese market capitalisation breached the $10-trillion mark a year later. But tough regulations punched the bubble and the Chinese market lost more than half its value.
India incidentally ranks way below at number nine, with a market capitalisation of a little over $2 trillion. Markets ahead of it include Hong Kong ($5.35 trillion), the UK ($3.7 trillion), France ($2.57 trillion), Germany ($2.35 trillion) and Canada ($2.23 trillion).
Chinese stocks have fared badly this year, with the Shanghai Composite having fallen by 17 per cent in 2018, and being ranked the worst performer in the world.