All the Asian equity indices barring Hang Seng snapped the day’s trade in negative territory on Monday as investors continued to fret over Chinese growth outlook and Greece’s debt situation, keeping financials and most resource stocks on the back foot, though a weaker yen lifted exporters in Japan. Data released on Saturday showed China’s trade deficit in February hit $31.5 billion as exports dropped, stoking concerns about slowing global demand and sluggish growth in the world’s second largest economy. Moreover, Greece also remained on the radar after the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, known as ISDA, declared Friday that a ‘credit event’ -- essentially a default -- occurred in Greece's debt, which will likely trigger a net $3.2 billion in payouts between buyers and sellers of credit default swaps on Greek sovereign credit. Meanwhile, official data released Monday showed Japanese core machinery orders rose a better-than-expected 3.4% in January.
Shanghai Composite ended 0.2 percent lower, led by property developers, after the head of Chinese central bank said that government was not using bank reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cuts to help stock market and property sector. Moreover, Japanese Nikkei share average dipped after breaking above 10,000 to a fresh seven-month high as hedge funds locked in profits following a 3.7 percent rally in the previous two sessions and 17 percent so far this year.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2,434.86 | -4.60 | -0.19 |
Hang Seng | 21,134.18 | 48.18 | 0.23 |
Jakarta Composite | 3,987.35 | -4.20 | -0.11 |
KLSE Composite | 1,564.75 | -14.25 | -0.90 |
Nikkei 225 | 9,889.86 | -39.88 | -0.40 |
Straits Times | 2,962.18 | -0.97 | -0.03 |
Seoul Composite | 2,002.50 | -15.80 | -0.78 |
Taiwan Weighted | 7,927.55 | -88.46 | -1.10 |