STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 4 February 2014

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30. Emerging Stocks Slump to 5-Month Low Led by China as Ruble Gains

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-04/emerging-market-stocks-slump-to-five-month-low-after-u-s-data.html

Emerging-market stocks fell to a five-month low as weaker-than-expected manufacturing data from China to the U.S. spurred concern global growth will falter. The ruble strengthened as Russia scrapped a bond auction.

Lenovo Group Ltd. sank 16 percent after at least five brokerages cut their ratings on the world’s largest maker of personal computers. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index tumbled 3.1 percent in the first trading day since data showed an official gauge of factory output fell to a six-month low. South African stocks slid for an eighth day, while the rand strengthened 1.2 percent versus the dollar. The ruble climbed 0.4 percent against the dollar after Russia canceled a debt sale for the second consecutive week.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index declined 1.1 percent to 916.44, the lowest level since Aug. 29, at 12:15 p.m. in London. The gauge is off to the worst start of a year on record amid an equities rout that’s erased about $2.9 trillion from global stocks in 2014 due to concerns Chinese growth is slowing, and as the Federal Reserve trimmed monetary stimulus.

Data showing U.S. factories expanded at the slowest pace in eight months in January were “disappointing,” Martial Godet, the head of emerging-market equity and derivatives strategy at BNP Paribas SA in Paris, said by e-mail. “Markets now price a somewhat weaker level of growth in the U.S. and EM.”