The Asian stock markets will be weighed down by several factors on Monday and will fall massively across the board.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 ultimately fell by 3.85 percent to 64,024.60 points on Monday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng ultimately fell by 1.22 percent to 24,657.06 units, and in mainland China the Shanghai Composite fell by 1.70 percent to 3,959.34 units. The technology-heavy KOSPI in Seoul finally fell by 8.29 percent to 7,484.41 points.
New attacks in the Iran war and concerns about interest rates are spoiling the mood
Traders cite interest rate fears, rising oil prices and the escalation in the Middle East war as stress factors. The unexpectedly strong US labor market data on Friday increased speculation in the US about interest rate increases.
The military conflict between Iran and Israel is flaring up again. Both sides bombarded each other with attacks from the air. An appeal from US President Donald Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to respond to the Iranian missile attacks went unheeded. This dampens hopes for a peace agreement, and as a result, oil prices rise significantly.
Sell-off in tech stocks
Technology stocks from the semiconductor sector, among others, are being sold due to concerns about interest rate increases, but profit-taking after the brilliant rally also contributes to this. The stock exchanges in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are particularly affected. In South Korea, trading was partially interrupted due to massive losses. Thanks to the AI boom, the South Korean leading index has also performed best worldwide so far this year.
Economic data is ignored
The revision of Japanese GDP data does not play a role in the market. For the period January to March, the real increase of 0.5 percent was confirmed, although the annualized rate was reduced slightly.
Carolin Ludwig, Alexandra Hesse, finanzen.net editorial team with material from Dow Jones Newswires