Asian Markets Fall on Wider Measures by Xi’s on Coronavirus Containment

Stocks in Asia-Pacific fell on Friday, as shares of oil giant CNOOC in Hong Kong saw heavy losses.

By the Friday market close in Hong Kong, CNOOC shares fell 5.57%. That came after index provider MSCI announced that it will delete the firm from the MSCI ACWI and MSCI China All Shares indexes.

The U.S. Department of Commerce under former U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week that it had added CNOOC to a list which essentially restricts those firms from receiving specific goods made in the U.S.

The broader Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 1.6% on Friday to close at 29,447.85.

Mainland Chinese stocks closed mixed, with the Shanghai composite down 0.4% to 3,606.75 while the Shenzhen component rose 0.697% to 15,628.73.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.44% to close at 28,631.45 while the Topix index shed 0.21% to finish its trading day at 1,856.64. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.64% to close at 3,140.63.

Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.34% on the day to 6,800.40.

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MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.92%.

Shares of Apple suppliers in the region were mixed on Friday. Japan’s Taiyo Yuden slipped 2.88% and Murata Manufacturing shed 0.57%. Over in South Korea, LG Display rose 1.07%.

In Taiwan, shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry — better known as Foxconn — gained 3.85% while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company slipped 3.57%. Hong Kong-listed shares of AAC Technologies declined 3.61%.

The Cupertino-based tech juggernaut’s stock stateside surged overnight after a top analyst from Morgan Stanley said she expects a record December quarter print for Apple, ahead of the firm’s earnings.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6% to close at a new high of 13,530.91 while the S&P 500 gained less than 0.1% to finish its trading day at 3,853.07, eking out another fresh high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, on the other hand, shed 12.37 points to close at 31,176.01.

Oil prices declined in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 1.25% to $55.40 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 1.45% to $52.36 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.254. That was lower than levels above 90.6 seen earlier in the week.

The Japanese yen traded at 103.63 per dollar, following an earlier high of 103.46 against the greenback. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7724, having risen from levels below $0.77 seen earlier in the trading week.