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The equity markets across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region were mixed on Thursday, with Japan and Australia basking in the green, China mixed and South Korea in the red.
Investors were closely tracking the Hong Kong-listed shares of firms related to the Chinese video gaming industry after China’s state media once again took a shot on the sector.
Wall Street – where sentiments were negative – didn’t seem to have much impact on the trend in the APAC markets as well. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 323.73 points to 34,792.67 while the S&P 500 slipped 0.46% to 4,402.66. The Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, outperformed as it rose 0.13% to 14,780.53.
Negative sentiments gripped Wall Street after jobs data from payroll processing firm ADP came in well below expectations. The ADP payroll survey showed a gain of 330,000 jobs for July, almost half of the consensus estimates of 653,000.
On a broader scale, the Morgan Stanly Capital International’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.05% higher.
Here is how major APAC markets are behaving:
China: COVID-19 seems to be coming full circle. Fresh new infections have been rising again in the country where COVID-19 is said to have originated, as the delta variant spreads across China. This has prompted authorities to enforce mass testing and widespread travel restrictions in certain areas. This has had a big impact on investor sentiment in the country: the Shanghai Composite was trading around flatline – up 0.09%; while, on other hand, the Shenzhen Component was down 0.28%.
Hong Kong: The Chinese gaming stocks listed in Hong Kong seem to have dampened the sentiments in the Chinese Special Administrative region. The Chinese state publication published an article on Thursday arguing that gaming firms should not have preferential tax measures that were introduced to encourage the domestic software sector. The write-up argued that the gaming industry is far more developed now. The Hang Seng Index, as a result, was trading 0.29% lower.
Australia: The Australian benchmark ASX200 index continues its record run. The index was 0.25% up on Thursday, as it touched yet another peak level. Investor sentiment was buoyed after the country recorded a trade surplus of around AU$10.5 billion in July – marginally above the forecasts – according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Japan: The markets in the far eastern country continued its bull run, as they have been aloof from the APAC region for some time now. The country’s benchmark Nikkei225 rose 0.44%, while the Topix was up 0.30%.
