Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slumped more than 4% while mainland China’s Shenzhen composite index fell 3.6% and the Shanghai composite index fell 3.3% on Friday, as Asian stocks reacted to the latest ructions from US President Donald Trump. Besides unveiling his plans for a trade war with China, Trump fired his national security adviser, HR McMaster. Trump appointed John Bolton as his third national security adviser. The first was Michael Flynn, who was fired after less than a month. Among the casualties of Friday’s global stock market rout was Naspers, which ended up receiving HK$405 per Tencent share it placed, a 7.8% discount to Thursday’s HK$439.40 closing price. The nearly 190-million shares Naspers placed amounted to HK$77bn, which was about R116bn at Friday morning’s exchange rate of R1.51 to the Hong Kong dollar — lower than the R125bn Naspers was estimated to receive on Thursday. Friday will be a jittery day for South African markets as the country awaits Moody’s decision on whether ...
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