Asian share markets were under water on Friday after a sudden reversal in some very popular, and thus crowded, trades sparked a bout of global risk aversion.
The net result was a pullback in the euro, sterling, and stocks and a bounce for the yen, gold and bonds. Oil prices had also taken a spill, though for purely idiosyncratic reasons.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed a sharp 1.3 percent, with markets from Shanghai to Sydney all in the red.
The various moves seemed divorced from the news flow, which was mostly upbeat with global manufacturing ending 2013 on a strong note as the United States, Japan and Germany all saw demand pick up.
The fly in the ointment was China where a measure of activity in the services sector eased back in December, just as one for manufacturing had on Thursday.
The next hurdle later Friday will be a spate of speeches from top Federal Reserve policy makers, including outgoing Chairman Ben Bernanke. Any comments on the outlook for tapering could affect market sentiment.
Anxious eyes were fixed on Thailand after the stock market sank over 5 percent on Thursday amid deepening political uncertainty. The Thai currency also took a bath, hitting its lowest since early 2010 at 33.03 per dollar.
Shares in South Korea lost another 1.2 percent, though there the problem was one of a strong won and a weak yen undermining the competitiveness of the country's huge export companies.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd was down over 1 percent, on top of a 5 percent decline on Thursday, and at its lowest since August.
The country's Finance Minister, Hyun Oh-seok, reiterated that they were closely watching the won and the ongoing depreciation of the yen, but went no further than that.
In currencies, the euro took a spill as speculators booked profits on long positions after a strong 2013. The single currency was stuck at $1.3657 after shedding a full cent overnight.
The same forces gripped sterling, another strong performer in recent months. The pound peeled away to $1.6441 from a 28-month peak of $1.6605.
That in turn lifted the U.S. dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's value against six major currencies, by the most in five months. On Friday, the index was at 80.595 compared to a trough of 80.083 the day before.
Going the other way, the yen enjoyed a short-covering bounce. Borrowing in yen to buy higher yielding assets has been a vastly popular trade, leaving the market vulnerable to sudden, if usually brief, reversals.
Source: Reuters
