Asian stockmarkets opened lower and have continued trading down following what has been widely considered a disappointing announcement from Mario Draghi yesterday (December 3).
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index is down 2.2 per cent at 19,504.48, while the Shanghai Composite index is 1.7 per cent lower, trading at 3,524.992.
The Hong Kong Sang Heng index is also trading slightly lower at 22,235.89, down 0.81 per cent.
Mr Draghi confirmed the European Central Bank (ECB) would extend its quantitative easing programme until March 2017 and the central bank cut its bank deposit rate from -0.2 per cent to -0.3 per cent.
Investors and economists had expected a bigger cut to as low as -0.4 per cent, with European stocks slumping on the news.
Bernard Aw, market analyst at IG Group, said in a note “the markets are going to be in a drunken stupor with various central bank activity in December”.
He confirmed the Bank of England, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) and Bank of Korea are all conducting their policy meetings on the same day next week, December 10.
“However, only RBNZ is expected to cut its official cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent,” Mr Aw added.
