Wednesday, 28 March 2018

Asian markets fall despite improving geopolitical context

Posted by Olga Gorinina at 10:08 Labels:

Equity markets in Asia were down on Wednesday dragged by sharp loses in Wall Street on the back of a weak performing technology sector. Asian stocks fell under pressure despite an improving geopolitical context in the region.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 eased 1.20 percent, while the broader Topix notched down 1.02 percent. 32 of its 33 subindexes were in red territory, with mining stocks taking the strongest hit.

Meanwhile in South Korea, the Kospi Index lost 1.34 percent with technology names pushing lower. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix followed Nasdaq components to the downside in the first hours of the session, but the latest was able to reverse early losses.

Despite the pressure weighing on technology-related stocks, other sectors such as automakers and manufacturing helped to cap loses. Kia and Samsung Heavy traded on the green side.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 also headed south with a vast majority of its components trading in negative territory. Gold-related stocks and materials led other sectors to the downside with average losses of nearly one percent for the day.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading at 1.81 percent by the time of this writing. Mainland China’s Shanghai was down 1.40 percent while the Shenzhen ended 1.12 percent.

No relevant economic data was released in Asia today. Ahead in today’s session, investors will be looking at the GfK German consumer climate indicator for April will be out at 07:00 GMT.

Later on, attention will shift to the United States, where traders await a fresh look at the fourth-quarter gross domestic product is scheduled at 12:30 GMT, with an upgrade to 2.6 percent expected. At the same time traders await the goods trade balance for February. Pending home sales for February are due for release at 14:00 GMT.

On Tuesday, technology stocks dragged Wall Street’s top three indexes, with the Nasdaq composite falling 2.9 percent to 7,008.81. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 344.89 points lower at 23,857.71, with Microsoft leading the downturn. The S&P 500 dropped 1.7 percent to end the session at 2,612.62.

On the corporate front, Bank of America Merrill Lynch decreased its target price on Facebook for the second time in the last week. According to analysts, that could have impacted on tech sectors, turning into a trigger for broader losses.

Meanwhile, investors also kept an eye on politics. Earlier today, China said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. News came out after Xinhua news agency reported an unofficial meeting between President Xi Jinping and Kim in Beijing

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