The Hong Kong stock exchange can summarize the worst trading day in 16 years. At closing, the Hang Seng index had plummeted by over 9 percent, which is the largest decline since the financial crisis in 2008.
The background to the heavy fall is the morning's message from Chinese authorities regarding additional stimulus measures. Recently, a series of such decisions have driven a price increase on, among other things, the Hong Kong stock exchange, but no signals were given, which in turn resulted in a sharp recoil downwards.
On the Shanghai stock exchange, which has been closed for a longer period and thus not been included in the general upswing, trading has instead gone in the opposite direction. At closing, the increase was written up to 4.6 percent.