- Tensions surrounding US-China trade talks continue to pressure Asian markets
- Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, and Hong-Kong markets crack
- Australia’s ASX gains led by strong performance by heavily weighted financial sub-index
Asian markets shed their morning gains on Thursday due to mounting tensions surrounding the U.S-China trade wars, reports CNBC, March 7, 2019.
China, Korea, Japan Markets Decline
Shares in Mainland China opened to a strong start on Thursday morning, only to slip by the afternoon and end up in the red territory. The Shenzhen component and the Shenzhen composite fell by 0.655 and 0.129 percent, respectively. Similar behavior was observed in the Shanghai composite which largely traded flat today.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index followed the cues of the Chinese market as it declined 0.46 percent.
The bearish sentiment was also observed in markets in Japan and South Korea.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell by 0.78 percent in the afternoon trade session weighed by losses recorded in the shares of Fanuc to the tune of 3.46 percent. Japan’s Topix also tumbled 1.00 percent.
Notably, one of the biggest losers in the Japanese market was the Tokyo-headquartered semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics. The company’s shares plunged by as much as 14.62 percent on the back of reports making round that the firm is mulling to partially stop chip production for two months due to decline in demand from the Chinese market.
With regard to South Korea, Kospi fell by 0.28 percent on Thursday.
Markets Surge Down Under
Contrary to the pessimistic market sentiment in China, Japan, and South Korea, Australian markets posted marginal gains on Thursday.
Australia’s ASX 200 surged by more than 0.31 percent on the back of gains recorded by virtually all the sectors listed.
ASX’s heavyweight financial sub-index recorded a gain of almost 0.2 percent. Notably, the country’s “big 4” banks’ shares traded mixed: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group plunged by 0.36 percent and Commonwealth Bank of Australia also recorded slight loss, while Westpac surged 0.26 percent. National Australia Bank climbed up by as much as 1.10 percent.
It remains to be seen whether Washington and Beijing come to an agreement regarding the long-stretched trade talks anytime soon.
Otherwise, one could expect the pressure to continue to weigh on capital markets and economic growth the world over.
