Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday, following overnight losses on Wall Street, as shares in Japan, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland struggled for gains.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.29% to 25,319.72 while the Nasdaq-style technology board, Hang Seng tech index, sold off nearly 3%.
Some of the major tech names listed in Hong Kong declined sharply: Alibaba was down 5.34%, Meituan fell 2.46%, JD was down 3.58%, Tencent declined 2.4% and Baidu fell 7.84%.
In the previous Asian Trading session, Baidu reported third-quarter revenue above market expectations. But the company warned that ad spending had been affected by a slowdown in China’s economic growth. Baidu makes most of its revenue from advertising.
Chinese mainland shares also traded lower: The Shanghai composite declined 0.47% to 3,520.71 while the Shenzhen component fell 0.9% to 14,579.17.
Shares in India traded lower, with the Nifty 50 down 0.58% and the Sensex off by 0.58% in afternoon trade. Digital payments giant Paytm made its stock market debut on Thursday, following India’s biggest initial public offering to date.
But investors were not impressed — the stock was down more than 22% as of 4:15 p.m. HK/SIN, after earlier declining by 24%.
In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.51% to 2,947.38, after wavering between gains and losses earlier in the session. The Kosdaq rose 0.15% to 1,032.77.
Japanese shares extended losses from the previous Asian session. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index declined 0.3% to 29,598.66 while the Topix fell 0.14% to 2,035.52.
Australian shares bucked the generally downward trend as the ASX 200 rose 0.13% to 7,379.20 during the Asian trading session. But the energy sector fell amid a sell-off in crude futures. Oil plays like Santos, Oil Search and Woodside Petroleum fell more than 1% each.
The country’s so-called Big Four banks were also under pressure: Shares of ANZ closed down 1.29%, Commonwealth Bank declined 1.55%, Westpac lost 0.98% and the National Australia Bank was down 0.69%.
“Equities were soft overnight on inflation concerns, as UK inflation came in stronger than expected and supply constraints weighed on housing starts in the US,” analysts at ANZ Research said in a morning note.
The U.K.’s Consumer Price Index rose by 4.2% in the 12 months to October, up from 3.1% in September and beating economists’ expectations of 3.9%.
Wednesday’s data is expected to add pressure on the Bank of England to act on interest rates at its December meeting. The central bank held rates steady in November, defying many investors’ expectations that it would be the first major central bank to hike rates following the coronavirus pandemic.
Asian Markets Currencies and Oil
Oil prices declined in the previous session amid growing concerns about oversupply and a recovery in demand. Price declined further Thursday during Asian trading hours. Brent crude futures fell 0.86% to $79.59 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped 1.33% to $77.32.
Elsewhere, in the currency market, the U.S. dollar pulled back slightly against a basket of its peers, trading down 0.15% at 95.682 — the dollar index is currently trading near levels not seen in more than a year.
“A general sense of uncertainty hangs over markets as risks around inflation persist along with the impending announcement of the US Fed Chair,” Venkateswaran Lavanya from Mizuho Bank said in a Thursday note.
The Japanese yen changed hands at 114.10 per dollar while the Australian dollar rose 0.21% to $0.7281.
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