Tech stocks drag Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lower; Asia markets mixed
Tech stocks in Hong Kong pulled the broader index lower on Monday as Asia markets traded mixed. SoftBank is set to report earnings after the market close.
Alibaba dropped 3.93% and JD.com slipped 3.02%. The Hang Seng index was down 0.75%.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific jumped 2.36% after authorities announced that hotel quarantine for travelers would be reduced to three days from seven days, though there would be a four-day surveillance period after the quarantine.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was mildly lower.
Shares of Oz Minerals spiked 34.83% after the company rejected BHP’s 8.34 billion Australian dollar ($5.76 billion) takeover bid.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan was up 0.18%, while the Topix index was fractionally higher.
SoftBank shares were 0.78% higher ahead of the earnings announcement.
South Korea’s Kospi was slightly lower and the Kosdaq shed 0.31%.
Chipmaker SK Hynix slipped 2.74% on Monday after the Korea Herald reported that a South Korean city, Yeoju, wants more compensation in exchange for letting the company build pipes to transport huge amounts of water to its plant in a different city.
Mainland China markets were mildly positive. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.19% and the Shenzhen Component rose 0.15%.
Over the weekend, China reported trade data for July that showed dollar-denominated exports grew 18% compared to a year ago.
That’s the fastest pace of growth this year and beat analysts’ expectations for a 15% increase, Reuters reported.
China’s dollar-denominated imports increased 2.3% in July compared to the same period in 2021, lower than the expected 3.7% gain.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.59%.
On Friday in the U.S., nonfarm payrolls came in at 528,000, far above expectations. Treasury yields rose strongly as traders adjusted their forecasts for Fed rates higher.
“Binary risks between policy-induced recession and run-away inflation continues to grow; imposing much higher dangers of policy miscalculations,” Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank, wrote in a Monday note.
