EMERGING MARKETS-China Evergrande contagion fears take toll across markets

  • 9/20/2021
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* EM stocks, currencies hit one-month low * EM Asia debt metric hits April lows * Cenbank meetings in U.S., Brazil, Turkey eyed this week * Argentine peso falls after Fernandez reshuffles cabinet By Susan Mathew Sept 20 (Reuters) - 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 U.S. 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. 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. 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. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1414 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1257.24 -1.73 MSCI LatAm 2264.88 -2.4 Brazil Bovespa 108936.46 -2.25 Mexico IPC 50842.65 -0.91 Chile IPSA 4354.18 -2.49 Argentina MerVal - - Colombia COLCAP 1313.75 -0.61 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.3266 -0.75 Mexico peso 20.1496 -0.67 Chile peso 787.7 -0.67 Colombia peso 3829.74 -0.12 Peru sol 4.118 -0.44 Argentina peso 98.4600 -0.10 (interbank) (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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