China Wingsuit FlyingREUTERS/China DailyA contestant flies during a World Wingsuit Championship at Tianmen Mountain near Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, October 17, 2012.
Fresh from plunging 6.4% on Tuesday, it’s been another tumultuous session for Chinese stocks on Wednesday.
After tumbling more than 4% midway through the session, taking its losses over the past two sessions to more than 10%, the benchmark Shanghai Composite rocketed higher in late trade, eventually closing the session with a modest decline of 0.5%.
The sudden and dramatic rebound, led by large-cap stocks, had all the hallmarks of intervention from China’s so-called “National Team”, a group of state-backed financial institutions entrusted with stabilising markets during times of significant market losses.
The 1-minute tick chart below, supplied by Thomson Reuters, reveals the scale of the rebound seen in late trade.
Like the Composite, all other mainland indices finished well off their intrasession lows. The best performer was the SSE 50 – that encompassing the largest listed firms by market capitalisation in Shanghai – which closed with a gain of 0.12%.
The decline in Chinese stocks corresponded with the news that Chinese industrial profitscontinued to slide in December, continuing the trend seen in the prior six months.
Despite the falls in China, most other indices across the region posted healthy gains.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo was the standout performer, rallying 2.72%. There were also solid gains for stocks in South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The one exception to the rule was Australia’s ASX 200 which closed with a decline of 1.20%. While it traded in negative territory for the majority of the session, it closed when Chinese markets were down by more than 4%, helping to explain the significant underperformance.
Here’s the current Asia scoreboard as at 6.15pm AEDT.
Stocks
  • ASX 200 4946.44 , -60.12 , -1.20%
  • Nikkei 225 17163.92 , 455.02 , 2.72%
  • Shanghai Composite 2736.13 , -13.65 , -0.50%
  • Hang Seng 19086.96 , 226.16 , 1.20%
  • KOSPI 1897.87 , 26.18 , 1.40%
  • Straits Times 2561.60 , 15.99 , 0.63%
  • S&P 500 Futures 1888.75 , -7.25 , -0.38%
Forex
  • USD/JPY 118.3 , -0.11 , -0.09%
  • USD/CNH 6.6101 , 0.0015 , 0.02%
  • AUD/USD 0.7030 , 0.0028 , 0.40%
  • NZD/USD 0.6477 , -0.0020 , -0.31%
  • AUD/JPY 83.16 , 0.25 , 0.30%
  • EUR/USD 1.0862 , -0.0007 , -0.06%
  • GBP/USD 1.4328 , -0.0022 , -0.15%
  • USD INDEX 99.042 , -0.3180 , -0.32%
Commodities
  • Gold $1,118.70 , -$1.47 , -0.13%
  • Silver $14.45 , -$0.05 , -0.32%
  • WTI Futures $30.88 , -$0.57 , -1.81%
  • Copper Futures ¥35,660 , ¥670 1.91%
  • Iron Ore Futures ¥322.00 , ¥7.00 , 2.22%
10-Year Bond Yields
  • Australia 2.692%
  • New Zealand 3.280%
  • Japan 0.213%
  • Germany 0.438%
  • UK 1.694%
  • US 1.998%