EMERGING MARKETS-China property stocks slip; Turkish lira slides again

Emerging market stocks fell again on Thursday, with Chinese property stocks in the red after China Evergrande Group missed another payment, while Turkey's lira made chunky losses for a fourth straight session on monetary policy worries. The lira fell 3.2% to 13 per dollar as investors fretted over central bank credibility after it succumbed to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's persistent calls for stimulus this year, putting the currency on course for losses of about 42% this year compared with a 0.8% rise for a broader EM index .

Emerging market stocks fell again on Thursday, with Chinese property stocks in the red after China Evergrande Group missed another payment, while Turkey's lira made chunky losses for a fourth straight session on monetary policy worries.

The lira fell 3.2% to 13 per dollar as investors fretted over central bank credibility after it succumbed to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's persistent calls for stimulus this year, putting the currency on course for losses of about 42% this year compared with a 0.8% rise for a broader EM index . Some measures unveiled to support the currency had seen it surge 50% from record lows last week, but analysts had warned that those treated the symptoms than the cause. Data on Thursday showed, Turkey's economic confidence index fell 1.8% month-on-month in December.

Against a stronger dollar, most other EM currencies lost ground. Russia's rouble was flat ahead of talks between President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on Thursday regarding Moscow's military build-up near the Ukrainian border. Data on Thursday showed Russia's service sector contracted for a third straight month in December, while business confidence fell to its lowest level in more than a year.

Although marking its third straight year in the black, MSCI's index of EM currencies gains compare to a 3.3% rise in 2020. "Foreign investors have been net sellers of EM assets for much of this year and tighter monetary policy in the U.S. and a stronger dollar suggest that the environment for EMs next year will remain challenging,' Capital Economics said in a year-end note.

"The good news is that most major EMs should be in a good position to weather any renewed outflows." Among stocks, Evergrande tumbled 9.1% after the embattled real estate developer, whose $19 billion in international bonds are in cross-default after missing a deadline to pay coupons earlier this month, missed new coupon payments worth $255 million due on Tuesday for its June 2023 and 2025 notes.,

Other Chinese developers such as Country Garden and Kaisa lost 1.4% and 2.5% respectively. While year-end settlements weighed on some indexes such as those in South Korea and Taiwan, most other EM bourses rose.

Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology, two of the world's largest memory chip makers, warned that strict COVID-19 curbs in the Chinese city of Xian could disrupt their chip manufacturing bases in the area. The EM tech index traded flat.

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