MARKETS ASIA/Mainly weak – China’s stock exchanges are turning positive

TOKYO/SHANGHAI (Dow Jones) — The Asian and Australian stock markets closed mixed on Tuesday. While most places fell, Shanghai and Hong Kong bounced back from temporary losses. However, concerns about rising prices, especially for raw materials, and the resulting rise in market and key interest rates weighed heavily. Strongly rising bond yields had killed off the Nasdaq in particular, sending it down over 2 percent. Investors also seemed cautious because US consumer prices, an important indicator of inflation, will be released on Tuesday.

Added to this was the war in Ukraine, which was being waged with undiminished severity, in which the Russian side may have used chemical weapons in Mariupol. Another factor that has also been pressing for some time was the massive restrictions in Shanghai due to the corona pandemic.

Japan went down particularly sharply, where the Nikkei fell 1.8 percent to 26,335 points. Concerns about broken supply chains and a stalled trade put pressure on shipping stocks such as Mitsui OSK Lines (-6.1%) or engineering stocks such as Fanuc (-5.5%). The Kospi in South Korea also suffered significant losses at 1 percent. The Australian market held up better with a minus of 0.4 percent. Meanwhile, the Chinese stock exchanges in Hong Kong (+1.0%) and Shanghai (+1.5%) gained significantly.

China approves video games

Because the Chinese stock market regulator has announced measures to expand access to the capital markets. In addition, Chinese regulators have approved a number of video game licenses for the first time since July, suggesting that regulatory controls over the internet sector may be relaxed. In the sector, Netease was up 2.8 percent and Tencent Holdings was up 2.7 percent.

In Tokyo, Honda Motor held up quite well with a minus of 0.2 percent. The car company wants to produce two million electric cars annually by 2023. A total of 30 electric car models are to be launched worldwide by 2030, as the company announced. Honda initially wants to use lithium-ion batteries from General Motors, Contemporary Amperex Technology and Envision AESC. The self-developed solid-state batteries are expected to be used towards the end of the decade.

In the Australian market, Iress gained 1.7 percent on the announcement that it will refrain from divesting its UK mortgage business. Pendal reacted weakly with a minus of 0.2 percent to the news that the company will reject the takeover bid from Perpetual (-0.4%).

Most regional currencies weaken against the dollar. Participants justify this with the forthcoming price data in the USA, which could further support the dollar with rising interest rate speculation.

Oil prices rose sharply as doubts grew about the imminent signing of a nuclear deal with Iran. Globally traded Brent is up 3 percent and is back well above $100 a barrel.

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

S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) 7,454.00 -0.4% +0.1% 08:00

Nikkei-225 (Tokyo) 26,334.98 -1.8% -6.8% 08:00

Kospi (Seoul) 2,666.76 -1.0% -10.4% 08:00

Shanghai Comp. 3,213.33 +1.5% -11.7% 09:00

Hang Seng (Hongk.) 21,420.38 +1.0% -9.5% 10:00

Taiex (Taiwan) 16,990.91 -0.3% -6.7% 07:30

Straits-Times (Sing.) 3,339.12 -0.7% +7.6% 11:00

KLCI (Malaysia) 1,598.84 -0.4% +2.4% 11:00

BSE (Mumbai) 58,458.86 -0.9% +0.4% 12:00

FOREX last +/- % 00:00 Mon, 9:19 % YTD

EUR/USD 1.0856 -0.3% 1.0884 1.0883 -4.5%

EUR/JPY 136.33 -0.1% 136.49 136.30 +4.2%

EUR/GBP 0.8348 -0.1% 0.8353 0.8366 -0.7%

GBP/USD 1.3003 -0.2% 1.3030 1.3007 -3.9%

USD/JPY 125.59 +0.1% 125.41 125.31 +9.1%

USD/KRW 1,232.04 -0.3% 1,235.21 1,233.73 +3.6%

USD/CNY 6.3686 -0.0% 6.3700 6.3742 +0.2%

USD/CNH 6.3770 -0.2% 6.3876 6.3845 +0.4%

USD/HKD 7.8367 -0.0% 7.8381 7.8389 +0.5%

AUD/USD 0.7429 +0.1% 0.7419 0.7427 +2.3%

NZD/USD 0.6828 -0.1% 0.6834 0.6828 +0.0%

Bitcoin

BTC/USD 40,014.03 +1.4% 39,442.79 42,220.88 -13.5%

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

WTI/Nymex 97.39 94.29 +3.3% 3.10 +31.7%

Brent/ICE 101.47 98.48 +3.0% 2.99 +29.7%

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

Gold (Spot) 1,957.44 1,953.73 +0.2% +3.71 +7.0%

Silver (Spot) 25.18 25.09 +0.3% +0.09 +8.0%

Platinum (Spot) 982.66 980.25 +0.2% +2.41 +1.3%

Copper Future 4.66 4.63 +0.5% +0.02 +4.6%

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 12, 2022 03:24 ET (07:24 GMT)