With liquidity back into markets after a four-day Easter holidays break, the stocks on the Asian indices turned into the negative territory after an early wobble this Tuesday, with the Australian stocks leading the decline in its Asian counterparts.
Asian stocks fall for the 1st time in 3 days
The Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 is down -0.23%% and manages to regain 17k barrier amid prevalent bearish undertone driven by steep losses seen in the health–care/ pharma as well as financial stocks. As the Japanese markets draw closer towards financial year ending, more than two-thirds of the companies on the index traded without the right to the next dividend.
While the overnight rally in the yen against the greenback also weighed on the exporters’ stocks and eventually dragged the index lower. More so, mixed macro releases from Japan earlier on the day, further added to the subdued sentiment surrounding the Japanese stocks. Japan’s household spending ticked higher in February, while the retail volume rose less than estimates and jobless rate also disappointed markets.
The Australian markets underperformed its Asian peers and kept heavy losses, sending ASX 200 index down -0.80% to 5,043. The sell-off in the Australian equities can be attributed to the decline in the banking sector stocks, while the gains in the gold mining stocks helped cushion the downside in the index. The overnight recovery in the gold prices from $ 1207 to above $ 1220 barrier underpinned sentiment somewhat.
Whilst the Chinese indices continued to wobble, with benchmark Shanghai Composite index down -0.46%, Shenzhen’s CSI300 also losing -0.10%, while China A50 shares inched 0.40% higher. Markets in Hong Kong re-opened after the Easter break, with the Hang Seng trading largely muted around 20,350 levels.
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)