Asian stock markets were mixed in early trading Thursday following overnight declines in U.S. stock prices and Treasury yields. But the declines were generally less than 0.5%, including in Japan, where the Nikkei fell nearly 1% in the opening minutes of trade.
The Nikkei
NIK, -0.58%
was last down 0.4%, with electronics and financials leading the way lower. Panasonic
6752, -0.93%
was down 1%, hitting fresh two-year lows, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
8306, -3.73%
and Resona
8308, -3.14%
fell some 3%, as did SoftBank
9984, -3.35%
. Toshiba
6502, +3.00%
, however, was up 3% at another two-year high following its latest stock-buyback announcement.
Chinese stock benchmarks turned solidly higher, continuing recent outperformance, with sentiment continuing to be helped by planned and possible government action. The Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP, +0.69%
was up 0.6% and the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite
399106, +0.47%
was 0.4% higher. Oil names rebounded some after a bounce overnight in crude prices.
Hong Kong stocks swung back and forth, and the Hang Seng Index
HSI, +0.42%
was last up 0.3%, thanks to Tencent’s
0700, +3.75%
post-earnings jump. Chinese oil major Cnooc
0883, +1.57%
rebounded 1% as crude ticked up overnight. But financials remained under pressure.
Australian stocks
XJO, -0.65%
fell again, led by financials. Commonwealth Bank
CBA, -1.60%
and Westpac
WBC, -1.22%
were each down more than 1%. New Zealand’s benchmark
NZ50GR, -0.02%
was down slightly.
South Korea’s Kospi
SEU, -0.10%
was down about 0.1%, while indexes in Singapore
STI, -0.01%
and Taiwan
Y9999, +0.03%
were about flat.
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Source : MTV
