EM stocks touch three-week lows amid growth concerns, chips selloff

A gauge of emerging market equities hit three-week lows on Wednesday as stocks sold off amid brewing global growth concerns, with chip stocks the worst hit following US firm Nvidia's sharp drop in the last session.

As of 0835 GMT, MSCI's index for emerging market stocks shed 1.6 per cent, hitting its lowest level since Aug. 15, while a gauge for currencies was flat.

Chips-heavy bourses in South Korea and Taiwan slid 3.2 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively, tracking a more than 9 per cent drop in AI-bellwether Nvidia overnight, the deepest ever single-day decline in market value for a US company.

US equities slumped in the previous session as sentiment remained weak after Institute for Supply Management data showed US manufacturing remained subdued despite a modest improvement in August from an eight-month low in July.

"A slightly weaker-than-expected ISM figure yesterday contributed to a resurgence of growth concerns and contributed to US stock markets declining," Daniel Bergvall, head of economic forecasting at SEB said.

Mainland China shares eased 0.7 per cent, while India's Nifty 50 lost 0.5 per cent.

The global selloff spilled over into emerging Europe, with the Polish benchmark down 0.6 per cent, while the Hungarian index also eased 0.7 per cent.

Amongst currencies, Poland's zloty was flat to trade at 4.2786 per euro, ahead of a central bank rate decision later in the day, with consensus tilted towards the bank holding rates at 5.75 per cent.

South Africa's rand appreciated 0.2 per cent against the dollar after falling about 0.9 per cent in the last session.

A survey showed South African private sector activity rose in August as firms received higher volumes of new orders for the first time since April 2023.

Later in the day, market attention would turn to a July reading of US job openings, which comes ahead of Friday's all-important August non-farm payrolls report that could offer more clues on the Federal Reserve's September rate cut plans.

Money market participants are all but convinced that the Fed will ease monetary policy when it meets later this month, with 59 per cent leaning towards a 25-basis-points (bps) cut as per the CME FedWatch Tool.

Meanwhile, debt issuance in emerging markets continued to pick up, with Vietnam's State Treasury raising 2.56 trillion ($103 million) in a government bond auction.

Indonesia's finance ministry said the country has raised $2.63 billion in 8-, 10-, and 30-year bonds denominated in the dollar and the euro.

Just over $17 billion of Ukraine's newly restructured government bonds are to be added to the world's most widely tracked emerging market debt indexes, JPMorgan, the bank that runs them, said.