The gravity of China’s great fall

By The Data Team

ASIAN markets are once again driving traders batty. A mammoth 8.5% plunge in China's stockmarkets on Monday, August 24th, touched off a wild day on global markets: in which Japanese and European stocks plummeted (as did American shares, before staging a remarkable turnaround) prompting commentators to liken the situation to previous crises from the Wall Street crash of 1929 to the Asian financial crisis of 1997. A day later, the Shanghai Composite Index continued its plummet, falling a further 7.6% as the market closed on August 25th.