Shanghai — China’s stock markets slumped on Wednesday, extending a rout from the previous day as the prospect of a full-blown China-US trade war put a dampener on the rest of Asian equities, even as they managed a modest bounce. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, rose 0.4%, although that came after a 2.1% fall on Tuesday. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.1% after earlier falling into negative territory. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.6% in choppy trade, a day after falling 3.8% to a two-year low. Wednesday’s fall came despite 30 listed firms announcing share purchase plans by major shareholders, and state media expressing confidence in the country’s stock markets. China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was 0.5% lower after briefly flirting with gains, and the Shenzhen Composite index was flat at midday. The extended sell-off in China comes despite indications that the country’s central bank could move to cut banks’ reserve requi...
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