Asian shares tumble amid trade war fears
July 4, 2018Asian stocks tumbled on Tuesday, with Chinese markets bouncing back after recording sharp losses earlier in the session as other major regional markets closed mixed. Meanwhile, investor worries over Beijing’s trade relations with the U.S. continued to weigh on sentiment in the region.
Investor sentiment was cautious as markets continued to watch developments on the trade front. A looming July 6th deadline is set to see the U.S. impose a 25 percent tariff on 34 billion U.S Dollar worth of Chinese goods from more than 800 product categories. China has announced that it will respond with duties on the same value of U.S. products.
Mainland Chinese markets rebounded after dropping during the morning session. The Shanghai Composite added 0.39 percent to close at 2,786.35 after touching two-year lows at the end of the session, and the Shenzhen composite gained 0.76 percent to trade at 1,549.24.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined by 1.44 percent to trade at 28,434.00 after dropping more than 2 percent earlier in the session as markets there reopened for trade after a holiday. The services and materials sectors led losses. Heavily weighted financials also slumped, with HSBC down by 1.83 percent, while technology blue chip Tencent slid 0.71 percent before the market close in Hong Kong.
In South Korea, the KOSPI finished slightly above the flat line, advancing 0.05 percent to 2,272.76. Manufacturing and technology sectors were mixed, with Samsung Electronics gaining 1.32 percent while steelmaker Posco lost 0.32 percent.
Japanese Stock Market: Nikkei 225
Japanese equities were lower in Tuesday as losses in the Retail, Food and Chemical sectors led shares lower to drop by 0.12 percent to trade at 21.785.84.
Regarding specific stocks, the best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Casio Computer Co, which rose by 3.04 percent or 54.0 points to trade at 1828.0 at the close. Meanwhile, Fujitsu Ltd added 2.97 percent or 20.4 points to end at 708.0, and Minebea Mitsumi Inc was up by 2.66 percent or 49.0 points to 1894.0 at the end of the session.
The weakest performers of the session were Mitsui Mining and Smelting Corporation, which fell by 4.98 percent or 230.0 points to trade at 4392.5 at the close. SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings, dropped by 3.72 percent or 20.0 points to end at 518.0 and Furukawa Electric Co which was down 3.53 percent or 135.0 points to 3685.0.
Falling stocks outnumbered the gaining ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2545 to 879, and 162 ended unchanged.
Australian Stock Market: ASX200
The Australian share market has recorded only its second advance in the last eight sessions despite a broad retreat of commodity prices overnight.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose by 32.4 points, or 0.5 percent to 6210.2 on Tuesday, driven by strong gains from the major banks.
Regarding specific stocks, the four major banks were among the market leaders on the session. Commonwealth Bank led the market with a 1.8 percent gain to 73.97 AUDUSD. NAB shares lifted by 1.2 percent to 27.74 AUDUSD, Westpac closed 0.7 percent higher at 29.39 AUDUSD and ANZ closed higher by 0.9 percent at 28.08 AUDUSD.
a2 Milk shares advanced by 3.4 percent to 10.72 AUDUSD after it announced it had extended its supply agreement with Synlait Milk. As part of the deal, there will be an increase of infant formula products over which Synlait already has exclusive rights. Synlait Milk’s shares also rose on the announcement, closing 2.4 percent higher at 10.65 AUDUSD.
