LONDON Aug 10 (Reuters) – Emerging market stocks pulled
back off three-month highs early on Friday as investors withdrew
from riskier markets following disappointing trade date from
China, while an interest rate rise in Serbia helped to shield
its currency.
China’s exports grew just 1.0 percent in July from a year
earlier, much weaker than market expectations for an 8.6 percent
rise, while imports grew 4.7 percent, against expectations for
7.2 percent.
“Poor Chinese numbers didn’t boost optimism this morning
with Asian regional bourses trading in (the) red,” SEB told
clients in a note.
“However the losses are quite modest and it doesn’t look
that a mass sell-off is about to take place.”
Benchmark emerging stocks lost 0.28 percent, with
Chinese stocks falling 0.24 percent on the session.
The cautious investor atmosphere also hit other equities,
with Russian stocks falling by 1.46 percent and the
rouble losing 0.55 against the dollar, but a strong oil
price was expected to limit losses.
Russia’s central bank as expected kept key interest rates
unchanged for the eighth month in a row at a meeting on Friday
as it attempts to balance growth and inflation concerns.
In Serbia, a rate rise on Thursday aimed at protecting the
dinar seemed to have had the desired effect, as it
gained 0.4 percent on Friday, following gains of 1.5 percent the
previous session.
The cost of insuring Serbian five-year bonds against
defeault, however, rose almost 30 basis points to 525 basis
points, a three-year high, reflecting the concerns around its
economy and the policies towards the bank of a new government.
Continued…
