Asian markets resume south-bound journey on fresh euro-zone concern

After witnessing strong rally in previous session, Asian counters resumed its south bound journey on Monday. Barring Straits Times, all the Asian equity indices ended the trade in the negative terrain as a surge in Spanish government bond yields renewed concerns about the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis and undermined investor confidence in riskier assets. Moreover, concerns about Europe outweighed an announcement by the People’s Bank of China over the weekend to double the yuan’s trading range against the dollar on a given day to 1 percent from 0.5 percent, pushing currencies such as the yen and the dollar higher, and hurting commodity prices.

Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei share average fell 1.7 percent as investors cut their exposure to risky assets in response to fresh concerns over the euro zone debt crisis after Spanish bond yields soared. However, Chinese shares ended flat with a downward bias on Monday as weakness in overseas markets and growing worries about a domestic slowdown weighed, although hopes for policy loosening helped trim losses.