MARKETS ASIA/Mixed – Chinese stock exchanges slightly up

By Steffen Gosenheimer

TOKYO/HONG KONG (Dow Jones)–The East Asian and Australian stock markets only partially tracked extremely weak Wall Street guidance on Wednesday. The Chinese stock exchanges are even doing well. In the US, concerns about disappointing quarterly earnings and corporate prospects amid rising interest rates, rising commodity prices and supply chain issues had fueled strong selling, particularly among tech and growth companies.

In addition, Russia fueled concerns about an energy bottleneck by announcing that it would no longer supply Poland and Bulgaria with gas. Oil prices then rose more sharply, which is likely to further drive inflation that is already far too high.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index shows a minus of 1.4 percent to 26,328 points after higher losses in the meantime. Seoul is down 1.1 percent and Sydney is down 0.6 percent.

The Chinese stock markets fared better with gains of up to 0.4 percent. Statements by China’s President Xi Jinping, who called for investments in infrastructure, have a supporting effect here. According to market observers, this means support for the economy, which is suffering from the ongoing and possibly extended lockdowns to combat the corona pandemic. In line with this, prices for base metals are rising in China. Only at the beginning of the week did the Chinese central bank signal support for the country’s economy, which is pursuing a zero-Covid strategy.

Quarterly figures make courses

Among individual stocks, Kweichow Moutai in Shanghai rose 4.0 percent after the liquor maker reported a first-quarter net profit increase.

In Seoul, SK Hynix are down 2.7 percent. The chipmaker missed the consensus estimate despite doubling net income. Battery maker LG Energy Solution tumbled 2.8 percent, weighed down by a 48 percent drop in earnings, but the company still performed better than expected. Celltrion increase by a further 2.0 percent. The driving force here is that the new government has pledged support for the biotechnology industry.

Fanuc buckle in Tokyo by 5.4 percent. The robot maker missed analyst expectations with its net profit. Nitto Denko is down 3.9 percent. The chemical company has forecast a 3 percent increase in net profit for the fiscal year. Also post-quarterly, Mitsubishi Motors gained 2.9 percent and Central Japan Railways 1.5 percent. Canon lose 1.2 percent and Nomura Holdings 4.2 percent.

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

S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) 7,272.70 -0.6% -2.3% 08:00

Nikkei-225 (Tokyo) 26,328.49 -1.4% -7.6% 08:00

Kospi (Seoul) 2,638.81 -1.1% -11.4% 08:00

Shanghai Comp. 2,897.41 +0.4% -20.4% 09:00

Hang Seng (Hongk.) 19,952.90 +0.1% -15.0% 10:00

Straits-Times (Sing.) 3,319.26 -0.1% +6.8% 11:00

KLCI (Malaysia) 1,589.64 -0.4% +1.4% 11:00

FOREX last +/- % 00:00 Tue, 9:33 % YTD

EUR/USD 1.0645 +0.1% 1.0639 1.0697 -6.4%

EUR/JPY 135.90 +0.4% 135.36 136.77 +3.8%

EUR/GBP 0.8462 +0.0% 0.8462 0.8405 +0.7%

GBP/USD 1.2580 +0.1% 1.2573 1.2729 -7.0%

USD/JPY 127.67 +0.3% 127.23 127.85 +10.9%

USD/KRW 1,262.76 +0.1% 1,260.98 1,254.14 +6.2%

USD/CNY 6.5559 -0.0% 6.5566 6.5503 +3.1%

USD/CNH 6.5859 -0.1% 6.5895 6.5816 +3.6%

USD/HKD 7.8460 +0.0% 7.8459 7.8464 +0.6%

AUD/USD 0.7165 +0.6% 0.7121 0.7190 -1.3%

NZD/USD 0.6568 +0.1% 0.6562 0.6625 -3.8%

Bitcoin

BTC/USD 38,425.88 +0.2% 38,330.27 40,610.50 -16.9%

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

WTI/Nymex 101.82 101.70 +0.1% 0.12 +38.8%

Brent/ICE 105.43 104.99 +0.4% 0.44 +34.0%

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

Gold (Spot) 1,896.40 1,905.46 -0.5% -9.06 +3.7%

Silver (Spot) 23.51 23.50 +0.0% +0.01 +0.8%

Platinum (Spot) 924.65 924.55 +0.0% +0.10 -4.7%

Copper Future 4.41 4.44 -0.6% -0.03 -0.9%

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DJG/DJN/gos/ros

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2022 00:47 ET (04:47 GMT)