Asian stocks sank on Monday amid fears of a potential collapse of the beleaguered Chinese real estate company Evergrande could lead to a wave of defaults in China's bloated housing market that could extend from the second-largest economy to the rest of the world. The company must pay this week interests on loans and bonds and experts fear it will not be able to honour creditors.
As the Chinese Evergrande Group falls into debt some regards as an encore of the Lehman Brothers crisis of 2008, markets around the globe have begun to brace for the worst despite little signs of encouragement in the opposing sense.
Expenses related to the bankruptcy proceedings of Lehman Brothers Holdings, whose collapse worsened the financial meltdown in 2008, has crossed the 1 billion US dollar mark.