MARKETS ASIA/Pelosi visit to Taiwan weighs on Shanghai and Sydney

TOKYO/SHANGHAI (Dow Jones)–By midweek, many East Asian stock markets saw a minor backlash to the previous day’s sharp losses. However, the controversial visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan prevented a clearer recovery. Stock markets in mainland China and Australia even posted losses. The already tense relations between the USA and China are likely to deteriorate further, according to fears.

In Shanghai, prices fell by an average of 0.7 percent. The encouraging Caixin Services Purchasing Managers’ Index, which rose again in July, offered no sustained support. Among stocks, Kweichow Moutai held up well after the liquor maker reported a 21 percent increase in profit for the first half.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was up 0.2 percent in late trading. The market was supported by technology stocks such as Alibaba (+3.2%) and JD.com (+2.8%).

Hopes for good company figures are supported in Tokyo and Seoul

On the Tokyo stock exchange, the Nikkei 225 index advanced 0.5 percent. Hopes of rising corporate earnings pushed geopolitical concerns into the background. Daikin Industries improved 4.0 percent after the company raised its sales and earnings forecasts. West Japan Railway (+3.5%) returned to profitability in the first fiscal quarter after the railway operator reported a loss in the same period last year.

Seoul’s Kospi advanced 0.9 percent. SK Hynix gained 0.8 percent. The company claims to have developed the world’s first NAND flash chip with 238 layers.

Meanwhile, the Sydney stock market, which held up better than the region’s markets on Tuesday after the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked interest rates within expectations, ended 0.3 percent lower. The political uncertainties surrounding the important trading partner China and negative specifications from the US stock exchanges from the previous evening are having a negative impact here. Some support for the S&P/ASX-200 came from Australian retail sales, which rose to a record high despite sharply higher prices. Stock exchange operator ASX lost 3.4 percent after it again postponed the introduction of a new system for dealing with exchange transactions.

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

S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) 6,975.90 -0.3% -6.3% 08:00

Nikkei-225 (Tokyo) 27,741.90 +0.5% -4.2% 08:00

Kospi (Seoul) 2,461.45 +0.9% -17.3% 08:00

Shanghai Comp. 3,162.96 -0.7% -13.1% 09:00

Hang Seng (Hongk.) 19,724.20 +0.2% -16.0% 10:00

Taiex (Taiwan) 14,777.02 +0.2% -18.9% 07:30

Straits-Times (Sing.) 3,252.48 +0.4% +3.6% 11:00

KLCI (Malaysia) 1,488.04 -0.5% -4.6% 11:00

BSE (Mumbai) 57,822.70 -0.5% -0.7% 12:00

FOREX last +/- % 00:00 Tue, 09:10 % YTD

EUR/USD 1.0167 +0.0% 1.0164 1.0236 -10.6%

EUR/JPY 135.13 -0.2% 135.37 133.83 +3.3%

EUR/GBP 0.8356 -0.0% 0.8356 0.8385 -0.6%

GBP/USD 1.2167 +0.0% 1.2164 1.2207 -10.1%

USD/JPY 132.92 -0.2% 133.18 130.79 +15.5%

USD/KRW 1,312.06 -0.2% 1,315.30 1,306.97 +10.4%

USD/CNY 6.7533 +0.0% 6.7525 6.7640 +6.3%

USD/CNH 6.7611 -0.2% 6.7749 6.7757 +6.4%

USD/HKD 7.8500 +0.0% 7.8499 7.8497 +0.7%

AUD/USD 0.6928 +0.1% 0.6919 0.6933 -4.6%

NZD/USD 0.6263 +0.2% 0.6251 0.6287 -8.3%

Bitcoin

BTC/USD 23,021.65 -0.3% 23,096.17 22,826.87 -50.2%

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

WTI/Nymex 94.02 94.42 -0.4% -0.40 +31.4%

Brent/ICE 100.17 100.54 -0.4% -0.37 +34.5%

GAS VT close +/- EUR

Dutch TTF 204.00 200.30 -0.6% -1.17 +234.3%

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

Gold (Spot) 1,767.62 1,760.33 +0.4% +7.29 -3.4%

Silver (Spot) 19.95 19.98 -0.2% -0.03 -14.4%

Platinum (Spot) 894.66 898.55 -0.4% -3.89 -7.8%

Copper Future 3.50 3.52 -0.5% -0.02 -21.0%

YTD at the close of the day

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Contact the author: [email protected]

DJG/DJN/cln/smh

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 03, 2022 03:15 ET (07:15 GMT)

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