Stocks, oil slide as China unrest grows

STORY: Mounting protests in China over its strict lockdowns hit global stock markets on Monday (November 28).

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed more than 4% at one point, before recovering to close down by around 1.5%.

The jitters then spread to European markets, with the regional STOXX 600 index off close to 1% in early trade.

Oil was even harder hit, with concern over what the unrest would mean for demand in China.

International benchmark Brent crude was down around 3% in early European trade.

The falls follow a third day of protests in China's commercial capital Shanghai, parts of Beijing and other major cities.

Gary Ng is a senior economist at Natixis:

"I think the main reason is that the markets are not good at pricing in these kind of uncertainties. It's a bit hard to know what will actually happen next and therefore the first reaction we see from the market is that people start to sell off related assets which, of course, China's onshore market is one of the victims, and also Hong Kong. Increasingly if we look across Asia, even Korea and Taiwan are seeing higher stress. So I think this is really the timing that investors are actually repricing this risk of China-related assets."

China has been enforcing new curbs as it battles a resurgent number of virus cases.

That has raised fears over fresh disruption for global supply chains.

It also dashed investor hopes that Beijing's move to more targeted testing and control measures would herald reopening.

In the capital many businesses now fear they may not survive until next year.