China’s Shanghai composite jumps 2% after returning from Lunar New Year holidays in mixed Asia trading
Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Monday, with mainland China markets rising as they reopened following the Lunar New Year holidays last week.
The Shanghai composite jumped 2.03% to close at 3,429.58 while the Shenzhen component gained 0.965% to 13,456.65. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped about 0.2%, as of its final hour of trading.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.7% to finish the trading day at 27,248.87 while the Topix index declined 0.24% to 1,925.99. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.19% to close at 2,745.06.
Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 0.13% on the day to 7,110.80. Shares of airline Qantas Airways, however, surged 4.62% after Australia on Monday announced it will reopen its borders to vaccinated travelers this month.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.16%.
Investors continued to monitor the situation around Ukraine, with White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan warning Sunday that a Russian invasion could be imminent.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.524 after its recent decline from above 95.9.
The Japanese yen traded at 115.25 per dollar, following last week’s weakening from levels below 114.4 against the greenback. The Australian dollar was at $0.7092, off levels above $0.714 seen last week.
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.08% to $93.20 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 0.55% to $91.80 per barrel.
