“Dividends might be zero,” Stanislav Kopylov, who helps manage about $3 billion at UralSib Asset Management in Moscow, said by phone.
KGHM retreated 3.7 percent in Warsaw as copper, lead, zinc and nickel fell in London after manufacturing shrank in China, the world’s biggest consumer of industrial metals.
OTP Bank Nyrt., Hungary’s largest lender, fell as much as 2.4 percent before trading down 0.7 percent in Budapest, its first decline in three days, after Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he supported raising taxes on financial transactions and banks.
India’s S&P BSE Sensex slipped 1.9 percent, falling to its lowest level in more than two weeks. Unitech Ltd., plunged 11 percent in Mumbai, leading losses among Indian real estate developers.
Rand Plunges
The South Korean won and the Philippine peso weakened at least 1.2 percent against the dollar, leading losses among the major emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The South African rand lost as much as 1.3 and traded 0.3 percent lower on speculation the Fed will scale back stimulus measures. Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus will announce the nation’s interest rates today, with 19 of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg expecting the rate to be held at a 30-year low.
“Emerging-market currencies are seen as a risk asset class and the volatility created by Bernanke’s testimony” is dragging them down today, Michael Ganske, head of emerging markets at Rogge Global Partners Plc in London, said by e-mail. “Market participants are nervous and are sitting on profits in this risk position.”
China Manufacturing
The May preliminary reading for HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics’ Chinese Purchasing Managers’ Index was 49.6, down from April’s final 50.4 level. A reading below 50 indicates contraction. The number for May missed the 50.4 median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The final reading is due on June 3.
Bernanke said a premature withdrawal of stimulus could endanger the U.S. economic recovery as policy makers debated tapering the pace of its bond purchase program.