(MENAFN– ecpulse)
Rising caution ahead of central bank meetings in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe this week as well as renewed fears of an economic slowdown in China pushed Asia lower on Monday.
- MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1.6% to 133.33 as of 15:08 Tokyo
Nikkei fell more than 3% as the stronger yen offset the positive retail sales data. The dollar/yen pair hit a new one-month low of 97.61 and that led to a sell-off among exporters. Moreover, investors are cautious as a new round of earnings kicks off.
- Nikkei 225 closed 3.32% lower at 1128.45
- Topix closed 3.31% lower at 1128.45
Stocks in China fell as disappointing data over the weekend weighed on sentiment. Investors await the release of China’s manufacturing PMI later this week, to help gauge the manufacturing activity that seems to have slowed to an 11-month low in July.
- China’s CSI 300 Index closed 2.16% lower at 2175.97
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.54% lower at 21850.15
Copper prices, in the mean time, hit a three-week low weighed on Australia’s resource stocks, but gains in banking stocks as optimism grew for an interest-rate cut next week capped the heavier losses on the index.
- The S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.09% higher at 5046.33
- New Zealand’s NZX 50 closed 0.08% lower at 4578.48
South Korea`s main index closed at its lowest level in four sessions as sentiment was hurt by data from the Bank of Korea showing that “domestic manufactures were more pessimistic about the outlook for August than they were for July”.
- Kospi closed 0.57% lower at 1899.89
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