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A stock market ticker shows financial gains and losses.
Equity markets across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region mostly traded in the red on Friday as China left its benchmark lending rate unchanged.
The shares in Mainland China fell as the Shanghai Composite declined 1.06% and the Shenzhen Component slipped 0.43%. In the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng index shed 1.21%.
The world’s second largest economy left both its one-year loan prime rate (LPR) and five-year LPR unchanged at 3.85% and 4.65%, respectively, on Friday – much in line with expectations of majority of traders and analysts.
In Japan, selling pressure was witnessed in the auto sector, which dampened the entire market. The benchmark Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.75%% in Friday’s trade while the Topix index shed 0.49%. The sell-off in Japanese Auto shares was triggered by Toyota’s Thursday announcement that the company will slash global production for September by 40% from its previous plan.
Toyota Motor fell 1.96% on Friday, while Nissan Motor dropped 5.41% and Honda Motor declined 3.52%.
In neighbouring South Korea, the KOSPI declined 0.93%.
The only major market in the region to bask in the green was Australia. The benchmark ASX200 index was trading near flatline – up 0.02%. The country has been witnessing a huge spike in the COVID-19 cases of late.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley Capital International’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.86% lower.
Overnight, in Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained about 0.13% to close at 4,405.80 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.11% to close at 14,541.79. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, slipping 66.57 points to 34,894.12.
