Most of the Asian markets have made a weak start, trading lower by about quarter to half a percent after Moody’s Investors Service cut the outlooks for Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to negative, further aggravating European concern. Japanese market was losing the most as yen strengthened against most of its major peers. Traders were also cautious ahead of the preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index data later in the day that may show China’s manufacturing contracted in July. The data is based on 85% to 90% of total responses to HSBC's PMI survey each month, and is issued about one week before the final PMI reading.
Shanghai Composite was down by 1.50 points or 0.07% to 2,139.91, Hang Seng was flat at 19,053.47, KLSE Composite lost 5.15 points or 0.31% to 1,631.00, Nikkei 225 lost 35.70 points or 0.42% to 8,472.62, Kospi Composite lost 5.57 points or 0.31% to 1,783.96 and Taiwan Weighted declined by 52.48 points or 0.75% to 6,979.15.
On the other hand, Jakarta Composite added 8.95 points or 0.22% to 4,020.81, Straits Times was up by 16.73 points or 0.55% to 2,999.22.