MARKETS ASIA/Down – Investors scale back risks ahead of weekend

By Steffen Gosenheimer

TOKYO/HONG KONG (Dow Jones)–After Thursday’s interim rebound, East Asian stock prices are set to turn lower again on Friday. They are following Wall Street’s lead after hopes of progress in diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine were dashed at a foreign ministers’ meeting and Russia is continuing its war of aggression unabated. Especially with a view to the weekend, when it is not possible to react quickly to new developments, investors are parting with equities and giving preference to safe havens.

In addition, the high level of inflation, which in the USA, for example, reached a 40-year high of 7.9 percent in February and which is causing the central banks to gradually increase interest rates, is a burden. Corresponding hawkish signals came from the ECB the day before. As a result, the specter of stagflation is still haunting the markets, i.e. inflation coupled with economic stagnation.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index lost 2.4 percent to 25,065 points, also slowed down by the dollar, which was clearly rising against the yen. In Hong Kong, the index even rushes down by 3.5 percent, in Shanghai it is 2.1 percent. In Seoul (-1.0%), market participants also point to a significantly reduced current account surplus, caused by higher imports, again as a result of higher energy and commodity prices.

Tech stocks are among the biggest losers because the stocks of tech and growth companies are particularly sensitive to interest rate increases. According to KGI Securities, there are also concerns on the Chinese stock exchanges about tighter regulatory controls by the USA against Chinese companies listed there. With a minus of over 16 percent, JD.com is replicating the crash already seen on the Nasdaq after the Internet company slipped into the red in 2021. In addition, the technology segment Meituan slipped by 11 percent, Tencent by 6.3 percent and Alibaba by 7.5 percent.

For once, there is relative calm in the oil prices, little is happening here after they had fallen significantly the day before. At $109 per barrel, the price of Brent crude has meanwhile moved relatively significantly away from the most recent 14-year high of just under 140.

Index (stock market) last +/- % % YTD end

S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) 7,061.70 -1.0% -5.1% 06:00

Nikkei-225 (Tokyo) 25,065.13 -2.4% -14.2% 07:00

Kospi (Seoul) 2,653.65 -1.0% -10.9% 07:00

Shanghai Comp. 3,238.53 -1.7% -11.0% 08:00

Hang Seng (Hongk.) 20,157.64 -3.5% -11.2% 09:00

Straits-Times (Sing.) 3,240.70 -0.0% +0.7% 10:00

KLCI (Malaysia) 1,561.84 -1.2% -0.3% 10:00

FOREX last +/- % 00:00 Thu, 8:48 % YTD

EUR/USD 1.0994 +0.1% 1.0988 1.1066 -3.3%

EUR/JPY 128.32 +0.6% 127.61 128.29 -2.0%

EUR/GBP 0.8410 +0.2% 0.8396 0.8391 +0.1%

GBP/USD 1.3073 -0.1% 1.3087 1.3188 -3.4%

USD/JPY 116.73 +0.5% 116.14 115.94 +1.4%

USD/KRW 1,232.63 +0.3% 1,228.74 1,227.12 +3.7%

USD/CNY 6.3252 +0.1% 6.3219 6.3193 -0.5%

USD/CNH 6.3339 +0.1% 6.3269 6.3247 -0.3%

USD/HKD 7.8274 +0.1% 7.8217 7.8192 +0.4%

AUD/USD 0.7329 -0.3% 0.7355 0.7341 +0.9%

NZD/USD 0.6835 -0.4% 0.6862 0.6848 +0.1%

Bitcoin

BTC/USD 38,620.42 -2.1% 39,464.15 39,333.32 -16.5%

ROHOEL last VT-Settl. +/- % +/- USD % YTD

WTI/Nymex 106.25 106.02 +0.2% 0.23 +42.7%

Brent/ICE 109.27 109.33 -0.1% -0.06 +30.4%

METALS last day before +/- % +/- USD % YTD

Gold (Spot) 1,985.76 1,997.22 -0.6% -11.47 +8.5%

Silver (Spot) 25.68 25.92 -0.9% -0.25 +10.1%

Platinum (Spot) 1,065.30 1,072.05 -0.6% -6.75 +9.8%

Copper Future 4.61 4.64 -0.7% -0.03 +3.3%

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DJG/DJN/gos/raz

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 11, 2022 00:43 ET (05:43 GMT)