TOKYO – Asian stocks were mixed on Monday, as sentiment was shaken by the US Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would end some emergency measures put in place last year to help the financial sector deal with the pandemic.
NIkkei 225 NIK from Japan,
dropped 1.8% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng HSI index,
increased by 0.2%. Shanghai Composite SHCOMP,
gained 0.9% and South Korea’s Kospi 180721,
sharp 0.1% higher. S & P / ASX 200 XJO from Australia,
advanced 0.4%. Shares fell in Indonesia JAKIDX,
but won in Singapore STI,
and Taiwan Y9999,
In Tokyo trade, major stocks fell almost across the board, including automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp.
and Honda Motor Co. 7267,
whose earnings are driven by a healthy US economy.
“Asian markets had a mixed start to the week, with rising bond yields once again weighing on sentiment. The fluctuation in influence between increasing bond yields and improving the outlook for economic recovery may well remain for the region at the end of March, ”said Jingyi Pan, senior market strategist at IG in Singapore.
The Fed’s move last week will restore some of the capital requirements for large banks that were suspended in the first months of the viral outbreak, in order to give banks flexibility. The banking sector expected these measures to be extended.
But most of the Fed’s policies aimed at supporting the recovery from the pandemic remain intact.
Concerns about the coronavirus pandemic remain in the region, where vaccine launches in some countries, such as Japan and Thailand, are progressing slowly compared to the United States or Europe. However, in Japan, a “state of emergency” is being lifted this week in the Tokyo area,
Wall Street closed down last week, with all benchmarks ending in red for the week. The S&P 500 SPX,
lost 0.1% to 3,913.10. The DJIA of the Dow Jones Industrial Average,
fell 0.7% to 32,627.97, driven by financial companies. The high-tech Nasdaq Composite COMP,
rose 0.8% to 13,215.24.
With interest rates rising, more expensive stocks, such as technology companies, fell. The prospect of higher interest rates, as bond yields rise, worries some investors about the possibility of slowing economic growth. There are also concerns that the increase in bond yields may be a harbinger of inflation.
In the energy trade, US crude CLJ21 benchmark,
dropped 46 cents to $ 60.96 a barrel. Brent gross BRNK21,
the international standard lost 19 cents to $ 64.34 a barrel.
In currency trading, the US dollar USDJPY,
advanced to 108.76 Japanese yen from 198.64 yen.