China’s Shocking Start to 2022 Pressures Beijing to Calm Markets
- Stock gauge rises after falling to almost six-year low
- This year will see Winter Olympics, leadership reshuffle
Beijing’s pledge to ensure economic stability is being tested by renewed turbulence in the nation’s financial markets, prompting officials to take more conspicuous measures in what is a politically crucial year.
Investors have had a lot to digest this week. Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s partial divestment of a listed company exacerbated a $1.2 trillion selloff in Chinese tech shares. One of the country’s largest bad-debt managers lost more than half its value in the equity market after a $6.6 billion bailout. China Evergrande Group suspended trading after it was ordered to demolish dozens of apartment blocks. Another developer defaulted on a little-known loan, sending the nation’s junk dollar bonds tumbling. A hawkish Federal Reserve knocked the ever-resilient yuan, prompting a warning from state media.