Cheer up, you could be sitting in Shanghai, where the composite index closed at a session low of 4419 on Monday, down 7.2 per cent. Concerns about raging food price inflation and higher local interest rates have now been joined by wild weather conditions, with snow and ice crippling transport and energy supplies.
Ahead of the Chinese New Year, on February 7, riot police were reportedly being stationed at the Guangzhou train station to control hundreds of thousands of workers trying to return home for the holidays.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 ended 4 per cent lower at 13,098, with economists at Goldman Sachs saying Japan may already be in recession; Seoul’s KOSPI index also lost 4 per cent, while the Hang Seng was down 5 per cent ahead of the close in Hong Kong.