(Paris) The New York Stock Exchange entered its last session of 2021 close to equilibrium on Friday, while the Asian and European markets have already drawn the curtain for the year.
Wall Street started sluggishly: around 3:05 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones lost 0.09%, the S&P 500 0.09% and the NASDAQ 0.14%.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the London (-0.25%) and Parisian (-0.28%) places evolved in the absence of most of their European neighbors, and closed in mid- day because of New Year’s Eve.
Over the entire year 2021, the Paris Stock Exchange jumped 28.85%, much more than London (+ 14.30%), and Frankfurt (+ 15.79%) or Milan (+ 23%) who closed their last session on Thursday.
“Such an increase is surprising given the context”, particularly health, “but this is explained by the influx of liquidity, corporate profits and other elements that have allowed the markets to rise”, details Thierry Claudé, manager portfolio to Kiplink Finance.
In Asia, Hong Kong lost 14.08% over the year and Shanghai gained 4.80%.
It’s been a tough year for many Chinese tech giants, most of which are listed in Hong Kong and battered by Beijing’s desire to limit their sizable influence over the world’s second-largest economy.
The Chinese market was also agitated by fears of a default by the over-indebted real estate giant Evergrande. The latter has fallen by nearly 90% since the 1er January.
Elsewhere, the results of the year remain more than positive, despite the health relapses and inflation, many stock market indices have broken their historical records, including the CAC 40 of Paris, the Dax of Frankfurt and the three indices of New York.
The recovery was in place in 2021, as evidenced by better-than-expected corporate results, and the economy and markets have benefited from substantial support from central banks and governments.
“As we look to 2022, questions relating to inflation, growth and the return of the pandemic remain relevant,” said Chris Beauchamp, analyst at IG, also citing the possible hikes in key rates of central banks.
Investors continue to monitor the progress of the pandemic. However, the fact that the sharp increase in contamination, under the Omicron effect of COVID-19, is not accompanied by a comparable increase in hospitalizations, reassures investors.
South Africa, where the Omicron variant was detected last month, said Thursday it passed the peak of the wave without a significant increase in the number of deaths.
Chinese tech suffered in 2021
Digital giants such as Alibaba (-49% over the year), Tencent (-19%), JD.com (-20%), or even the manufacturer of electronic devices Xiaomi (-43%) have declined significantly in 2021 in Hong Kong.
London winners of the year
The Ashtead equipment rental group recorded the largest increase of the year on the London Stock Exchange (+ 72.83% to 5,942 pence), the global recovery having notably boosted the rental of construction-related equipment.
Swiss commodities giant Glencore, which had returned to profit in the first half of the year, also posted a sharp rise, with its stock rising 60.92% to 374.95 pence since 1er January.
On the oil, euro and bitcoin side
Around 3 p.m. GMT, the price of a barrel of US crude WTI for February delivery lost 1.23% to 76.06 dollars. That of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in March, which is the first day of use as a benchmark contract, yielded 0.92% to 78.78 dollars.
The euro rose 0.13% against the greenback to $ 1.1339.
Bitcoin rebounded 1.57% to $ 48,040.