Beijing, China (BBN) – Asian equities were mixed on Monday as investors mulled headlines out of the G-20 finance ministers meeting in Germany at the weekend and China Development Forum over the next two days.
Finance ministers from twenty of the world’s biggest economies held a two-day meeting, and warned against competitive devaluations and disorderly FX markets but , reports CNBC.
“Germany Finance Minister Schauble bemoaned the omission for “resit all forms of protectionism” in the G-20 communique as US Treasury Mnuchin preferred to ‘reduce excessive global imbalances…promote greater inclusiveness and fairness,'” said Vishnu Varathan, senior economist at Mizuho Bank, in a Monday note.
Down Under, the ASX 200 dipped 0.36 per cent, seeing broad losses across all sub-indexes.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.53 per cent. Earlier, official data showed that South Korea’s February producer prices rose at its fastest pace in over five years, with the producer price index (PPI) up at 4.2 per cent, compared to January’s 3.9 per cent.
Chinese mainland shares were mixed on Monday morning, with the Shanghai composite up 0.26 per cent and the Shenzhen composite added 0.06 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.6 per cent.
Over in Beijing, international business leaders, international organizations and Chinese policymakers gather for the 18th session of the China Development Forum.
Official data on Saturday showed that China’s property prices rose in February after having slowed in the past four months.
New home prices were up 0.3 per cent, compared to January’s 0.2 per cent increase.
Meanwhile, property sales jumped 25.1 per cent in January and February, the strongest annual growth in seven years.
In Southeast Asia, oilfield services firm Ezra Holdings of Singapore filed for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Saturday, and said it had loans of $272 million owed to Singapore’s DBS Group, and $184 million owed to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
Shares of DBS Group and OCBC were down 0.41 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively.
Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times index was down 0.4 per cent, weighed heavily by its oil and gas index, which fell 1.01 per cent.
Markets in Japan are shut.
On Friday, Japan’s benchmark index fell 0.35 per cent to close at 19,521.59.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday in Germany that the European Union and Japan should soon reach an economic deal, and stressed the importance of free trade to his country, Reuters reported.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for 30 minutes on Sunday and said that President Donald Trump anticipated a meeting soon, Reuters reported.
IBM and a unit of China’s Dalian Wanda Group agreed on Sunday to team up to provide cloud services for Chinese firms through a newly formed venture, Wanda Cloud Company.
Oil prices were steady last Friday after dropping nearly 10 percent for the week on concerns of a continued global supply overhang.
During Asian time, Brent crude was down 0.35 per cent at $51.58 a barrel, while US crude fell 0.59 per cent to $48.50.
The dollar weakened further to 100.16 against a basket of currencies at 10:52am HK/SIN, at a nearly one-month low. The yen strengthened to 112.52, falling below the 113 handle, against the greenback.
The Australian dollar was stronger at $0.7717 as of 10:52 am HK/SIN.
US stocks closed mixed Friday, dragged down by declines in financial and health care stocks.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.1 per cent to 20,914.62, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.13 per cent to 2,378.25.
The Nasdaq composite closed flat at 5,901.00.
BBN/MS/ANS