Asian markets settled mostly lower on Friday as Wall Street shares suffered heavy losses overnight on heightened fears of a recession. Growing worries about the United Kingdom's fiscal policy, Europe's energy crisis, hawkish Federal Reserve commentary and the prospect of bigger rate hikes have also weighing on markets. Chinese shares fell, despite the official Chinese PMI showed that the country’s manufacturing sector unexpectedly expanded in September. Japanese shares declined even as Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio planned to spend nearly 7 billion dollars over five years in an economic stimulus package to be announced next week. Data showed that Japan's industrial production and retail sales figures for August beat expectations, and the jobless rate fell to 2.5% in the month. South Korea's factory output contracted for a second month in August, but retail sales jumped 4.3%, marking the fastest gain since May 2020.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,024.39 | -16.81 | -0.55 |
Hang Seng | 17,222.83 | 56.96 | 0.33 |
Jakarta Composite | 7,040.80 | 4.60 | 0.07 |
KLSE Composite | 1,394.63 | -2.87 | -0.21 |
Nikkei 225 | 25,937.21 | -484.84 | -1.83 |
Straits Times | 3,130.24 | 15.16 | 0.49 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,155.49 | -15.44 | -0.71 |
Taiwan Weighted | 13,424.58 | -109.68 | -0.81 |
