China Evergrande contagion fears take toll across markets
Shares in cash-strapped Evergrande hit decade lows, while property stocks in Hong Kong were also hit on Monday
Concerns over fallout from a possible default by property developer China Evergrande sent emerging market bonds into a downward spiral on Monday, while stocks and currencies had their worst fall in a month.
Also hanging over emerging market assets were central bank meetings this week including Brazil and Turkey and widely- awaited clues on stimulus tapering from the US Federal Reserve.
Declines of between 0.2% and 0.8% for Latam currencies deepened pain for MSCI's index of EM currencies. Brazil's real stayed at four-week lows ahead of an expected 100 basis points interest rate cut on Wednesday.
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Shares in cash-strapped Evergrande hit decade lows, while property stocks in Hong Kong were also hit on Monday. The firm has begun repaying investors in its wealth management products with real estate.
"As of right now, I don't see any systemic risk for the global economy from the Evergrande situation," said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer at The Bahnsen Group.
"But there doesn't need to be any systemic risk in order for markets to be affected because there isn't enough clarity on how Evergrande's challenges may affect the global economy and that uncertainty is enough to spook markets."
The cost of insuring China against default rose to a near one-year high, IHS Markit data showed. As of last week, a metric of Asian high yield debt had fallen to April lows, while the corporate bonds counterpart touched June 2020 lows. China markets were closed for a holiday.
Elsewhere, bonds in South Africa, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica and El Salvador bonds were all hit. Among stocks, those in Chile sank almost 3%, while shares in Brazil, South Africa and Poland lost more than 2%, with Sao Paulo stocks hitting 6-1/2 month lows.
Those in Russia, Turkey and Mexico were well in the red too. T
The heavily-controlled Argentine peso fell about 0.2% after President Alberto Fernandez reshuffled his Cabinet on Friday following a tug-of-war between more moderate and militant factions within the government, which threatened to derail the government coalition.
