Xi Jinping’s reelection to a third term as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China led to a drop in shares of China and a drop of 7.3% to 5,019.96 points in China’s companies index. The figure was the lowest since the 2008 global financial crisis, Bloomberg reported, citing Hong Kong bourse trading data.

“The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, an indicator of Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong, fell 7.3 percent, posting its worst performance since any Communist Party congress since the index was created in 1994,” the report said.

Xi’s reelection led to an exodus of foreign investors from mainland China and a plunge in major Chinese companies stocks. Against this backdrop, they began selling a record number of shares through trading links in Hong Kong. As a result, this led to a 3% drop in the CSI 300 index, which unites shares of major companies by capitalization in Shanghai and Shenzhen. This factor also led to a weakening of the yuan.

“The onshore (exchange rate formed directly in China’s domestic market) yuan fell as much as 0.6% to its lowest level since January 2008,” the article reported.

On October 24, CNBC reported that China’s economic growth accelerated to 3.9% in the third quarter of 2022. This figure was higher than forecasted by international analysts, who expected China’s GDP to increase by only 3.4%.

Earlier we reported that investors expect a surge in mergers and acquisitions activity in the UK as the pound falls against the dollar.