China Stock Market Closes Down as Investors Worry about Oil Prices

Chinese shares saw steep losses in late trade on January 26 as investors worried about oil prices, and despite an injection of liquidity into the mainland market by the central bank.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite closed down 6.42% at 2,749.79.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 2.48% to 18,860.8 points in afternoon trade.

Elsewhere, markets in Asia followed US stocks lower as further falls in the price of oil continued to unsettle investors.

Brent crude prices dropped below $30 a barrel ending a short-lived rebound as persistent concerns of oversupply were exacerbated by news that Iraq’s output reached a record high last month.

Wall Street also fell, wiping out most of its gains from the past two days.

Asia’s biggest index, Japan’s Nikkei 225, followed the US, dropping 2.4% to close at 16,708.90 points.

The ongoing slump in the oil price has investors worried that slowing growth in the global economy, and China in particular, is far from any substantial recovery.

South Korean stocks also fell, with the Kospi index closing 1.2% lower at 1,871.42 points.

Investor sentiment in Seoul was also dampened by data showing the country’s economy grew at a slightly lower rate in Q4 of 2015 from the previous three months.

Q4 growth rose 0.6% in seasonally-adjusted terms from the third quarter, slowing from its 1.3% expansion in the previous quarter.

In Australia, markets remained closed for a national holiday.