The news from the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, like a singularity in the Big Bang, spread rapidly throughout the world while the press conference was still going on.
In every corner of the planet, no matter which time zone, people were notified, the media began to publish emergency news, financial institutions convened impromptu meetings, governments of various countries consulted on countermeasures, and even, with the release of the news, countless people focused on Asia for several months. The general public has been talking about this financial turmoil, and some financial forums on the Internet have even experienced downtime due to the sudden influx of too many users.
Naturally, the first one to bear the brunt is the Hong Kong financial market.
At 2:06 pm on October 29, 1997, not long after the press conference at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center started, as the news spread quickly, the Hang Seng Index hit 9355 points, the lowest point in the Hong Kong stock market in four months. , and began to turn.
The Hang Seng Index trend curve seemed hesitant at first. As the press conference was broadcast live on the Internet media platform and Hong Kong TVB, the news was confirmed, and the Hang Seng Index curve began to rise rapidly in an almost straight line. By the end of the press conference, the Hang Seng Index had risen from the lowest point of 9,355 points to 10,069 points. In thirty minutes, the Hang Seng Index rose by an astonishing 7.6%.
Immediately afterwards, a large number of short capital still betting on Hong Kong also reacted and began to organize large-scale short selling in an attempt to suppress the continued surge of the Hang Seng Index. Almost at the same time, the capital raised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in advance also entered the market directly and started a close game with short sellers.
The last two hours of trading on the day saw a lot of ups and downs for the Hang Seng Index.
At the same time, Hong Kong's exchange rate market, even if it is not the main battlefield, related games are also unfolding at the same time, and Hong Kong's bond market and other financial capital areas are also in turmoil.
Finally, at 4:10 pm that day, the Hong Kong stock market closed, and the Hang Seng Index finally settled at a high of 10,537 points that day. From the opening of 9639 points on this day to the closing of 10537 points, the increase reached 9.3%, and the overall single-day fluctuation range of the Hang Seng Index reached 12.6%.
In addition, throughout the day on October 29, the total trading volume of the Hong Kong stock market reached 36.3 billion Hong Kong dollars, of which more than 24 billion Hong Kong dollars of transactions were completed in the last two hours of the afternoon trading period. Therefore, it can be seen that the game of long and short capital is How intense.
On the other hand, stimulated by the good news, the exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar against the U.S. dollar also rose by 1.04% throughout the day, from the Hong Kong linked exchange rate of 7.83 Hong Kong dollars to one U.S. dollar, which was close to the lower limit of the floating limit, to the upper limit of 7.75 U.S. dollars to one U.S. dollar.
The surge in Hong Kong's stock and foreign exchange markets quickly spread throughout Asia.
As many short sellers believed that this would be the end of the four-month Asian financial turmoil, they began to flee after hearing the news. During the subsequent trading sessions in various countries and regions that day, stocks, bonds, foreign exchange and other markets rose across the board.
Except for the unlucky South Korea.
Because the Korean stock market opens from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., plus the time difference, but when the news from Hong Kong reaches South Korea, it is already three o'clock in the afternoon.
The Korean stock market has closed for an hour.
Therefore, when Hong Kong's financial situation reversed, the Korean stock market fell again by 4.5% on Wednesday. The KOSPI index closed at only 327 points, far away from the peak of 1145 points in 1994. The cumulative decline reached 72%, even within a year. Within, the decline from the highest point of 849 points in October last year was more than half.
After all, the Korean stock market is just a small market, and the worst thing is the Korean won.
On the same day, the Korean won's single-day decline reached 5.4% again, from 1,781:1 to the US dollar to 1,877:1. Compared with the exchange rate of about 800 won against the US dollar a few months ago, the depreciation rate has exceeded 50%, and There was no sign of stopping the bleeding.
As the major financial markets in Asia closed one after another, as night gradually covered all parts of Asia, and Europe and North America ushered in dawn, media public opinion about the press conference held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on October 29 finally began to explode on a large scale.
Governments around the world, major media, major financial institutions and even the public on online platforms have all commented on this black swan-level super financial event.
The first is Asia.
The governments of Japan and South Korea, which can be called the younger brothers of the United States, were the first to express their affirmation of this press conference. South Korea’s Kim Young-sam government even directly appealed to Washington, calling on the federal government to take more powerful measures to curb the influence of international financial speculators on the economies of Asian countries. attack.
The sentiments in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries are somewhat complicated.
Because the participants in this conference, Quantum Fund, have just been wreaking havoc in their country's financial markets in the past few months. Now, the wolf suddenly stopped eating meat and protected the sheep instead. This seems to be a good thing. But, what should we do with the sheep that have been chewed to pieces
So I simply didn’t mention it.
Among the relevant statements, they only affirmed Hong Kong's courageous and proactive intervention in the market, as well as the measures taken by the Westeros system to maintain the stability of the international financial order.
After the government expressed its stance, the media in various Asian countries basically maintained the same tone. That night, a news program with the highest ratings in mainland China gave the press conference a full 12 minutes to report in detail. At the same time, it publicly stated a very popular slogan in mainland China in a very euphemistic way. My friend Come with the good wine, come with the jackal, come with the shotgun.
Of course, there is definitely a lot of noise in the one-sided public opinion.
Masashi Suzuki, the chairman of Japan's Nomura Securities, was a little excited when he was interviewed by Fuji TV that night. He followed the crowd and slightly affirmed the press conference, and then began to criticize, accusing Quantum Fund's sudden turn of events as a conspiracy. The more he said, The angrier he got, the more he finally contradicted himself and turned into a complete denial. He scolded the three parties involved in the press conference one by one. He believed that the Hong Kong authorities should not violate the rules of the free market. He believed that Simon Westeros had completely taken the wrong position. I think Quantum Fund must have done something for the overall situation, blah blah blah.
The host of Fuji TV was also sharp. After Suzuki Masashi finished complaining, he pointedly asked whether Nomura Securities had placed a large number of short positions in Hong Kong.
Suzuki Masashi was stunned on the spot, then quickly denied it, and finally got up and left the studio.
This incident also quickly became news.
This is because Nomura Securities' operating conditions have been very poor in recent years, and it has been losing money for several consecutive years. Now, the Asian financial crisis is still ongoing. If Nomura Securities suffers another huge loss in Hong Kong, it is likely that it will be completely unable to support it.
Faced with questions from investors, Nomura Securities had to hold a small press conference an hour after its chairman was interviewed by Fuji TV, and once again publicly denied that Nomura had no short positions in Hong Kong.
However, the facts soon came to light. A Nomura Securities executive who was laid off two months ago disclosed on social networks that he had been personally involved in the operations of the Nomura Derivatives team on the Hong Kong stock market since the first half of the year. The Hang Seng Index bucked the trend and rose when stock markets in other Asian countries were falling. Nomura, who was short on the Hang Seng Index, lost a lot of money at that time. It was because of this loss that he was laid off by the company.
Faced with the former executive's disclosure, Nomura Securities simply pretended to be dead and stopped making any reply.
Compared with Asia, when the sun begins to shine in Europe and a new day dawns, European countries, mainly the governments of developed Western European countries, have one-sided criticism of this press conference in Hong Kong, with almost no exceptions.
French President Jacques Chirac even stated that the French government may take certain countermeasures if necessary in response to Hong Kong's violation of free market rules.
As for the financial giants in Europe, they all exploded together.
What's happening
A guy who has been the leader in Asia for the past month suddenly comes at them. Do we want to turn around
The question is where is the time to turn around? !
The Hong Kong authorities couldn't control it, so they tried to contact Soros of the Quantum Fund and a certain young boss behind the Westeros system to find out what was going on
At least give me an explanation.
Is it just a dream for everyone to harvest Asia happily during this period
Why not continue
Why rebel? !
Why do you want to attack your own people
Why is this
Governments and financial institutions are like this, and you can imagine the direction of public opinion in the European mainstream media.
For the father-in-law of the sun, who is watching the world indifferently, there is nothing new on the earth. The sunlight continues to be thrown towards North America as the earth rotates.
When Europeans thought that the U.S. government would cheer up and resolutely stifle the unexpected black swan in Hong Kong, the major U.S. print media that first published their reports in the early morning almost all reported on the relevant time. , completely unable to see the anger that the various capital forces represented behind the scenes of these media outlets should have.
Shouldn't we be angry
Then, at the White House's regular press conference that morning, Clinton, whom everyone was expecting, didn't even show up. The White House spokesperson also made some bland remarks, saying that the Hong Kong authorities' methods of intervening in the financial market should be used with caution. The attitudes of the Westeros System and the Quantum Fund are just corporate behaviors. It’s inappropriate to comment, blah blah blah.
Everyone knows that the United States is receiving a very important state visit recently, but according to usual practice, shouldn't the United States show toughness in other aspects at this time
Clinton, what the hell are you doing
Of course, no one is a fool. After complaining, many people gradually come to their senses.
The Westeros System, Quantum Fund, these are all American capital.
Before the two companies do this, maybe, very likely... they will first check with other capital on Wall Street, right
Or even directly join forces to hunt other unknowing international financial capitals? Thinking about it this way, the reaction of the US government and the lackluster public opinion in the US suddenly became normal.
This is a game, a hunting game for the entire Wall Street!
It’s normal!
Got it!
Wall Street, you are not a human being, please give us back our hard-earned money! ! !