Equities in Asia fall under pressure despite Wall Street’s gains

Equity markets in Asia came under pressure on Tuesday despite gains seen on Wall Street in the previous session amid easing geopolitical concerns.

Investors positively digested lower tension between the United States and China regarding trade negotiations taking place in Washington. However, optimism didn’t last in the region, with major stock indexes playing to the downside amid an empty economic calendar.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.15 percent to close the session at 22,967.5 points, while the broader Topix eased 0.23 percent to 2,287.72 points, with mining and insurance companies leading decliners.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.70 percent as all its subindexes pushed lower. The island’s "Big Four" banking institutions dropped, with ANZ slipping more than 1.5 percent.

Mainland China indexes were also trading in red territory today. The Shanghai composite settled 0.02 percent higher while the Shenzhen Composite fell 0.02 percent.

Stock markets in Hong Kong and South Korea remained shut for a holiday.

On the news front, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said trade negotiations with China had "made very meaningful progress" and it’s now time to implement what was discussed.

Over the weekend, Mnuchin said the trade war was “on hold” as considerable advances were made with Chinese representatives in the US last week.

In other news, the Trump administration is actively working with China to lift a ban on US companies selling hardware and software to ZTE. To do so, the ZTE needs to implement major changes in management, board seats and pay fines.

No major economic reports are due for today.

FortFS