Asian Shares Lower After Wall Street Fades
January 16 2018 - 9:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Kenan Machado
Asian stocks started lower Wednesday following a late selloff in
U.S. equities and fresh multiyear and record highs logged by some
regional stock markets on Tuesday.
Sentiment was weaker after a solid performance in the region on
Tuesday which saw Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index score a record-high
close and Singapore's benchmark stock index getting to levels last
seen in 2007.
Leading the way lower was Japan's Nikkei Stock Average, which
fell 0.6% after climbing 1% Tuesday to fresh 26-year highs. The
pullback came as the dollar is at fresh four-month lows against the
yen at Yen110.35. It was around Yen110.85 when local stock trading
ended Tuesday.
While export-reliant stocks weakened, as they often do when the
yen strengthens, Japanese oil firms were also weak after overnight
declines in crude prices. Oil prices were up about 0.3% in early
Asian trading but shares of oil distributor JXTG and oil explorer
Inpex were down about 2%.
Australian oil names slightly lower but the Sydney market was
down 0.5%, weighed by a 2.5% slide for BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
The mining giants were lower as some investors took profits on the
pair's roughly 20% jump to multiyear highs in recent weeks.
There has been increased stock volatility in Australia, which
"suggests traders are becoming nervous that the market may already
have anticipated the widely expected strong profits" set to be
announced in the coming weeks, said Ric Spooner, chief market
analyst at CMC Markets.
"If further selling does emerge over the next session or two, it
will signal that a correction is under way," he added.
New Zealand's NZX-50 rose 0.3% to extend Tuesday's rebound, with
a2 Milk up 4.5%. The company said it would expand distribution of
dairy products in the U.S. The market is still underperforming the
region; it is still down for January after rising every month last
year.
South Korea's Kospi was down 0.4% as investors sold some
tourism-related stocks that had recently strengthened amid signs of
thaw of relations with North Korea. Asiana Airlines fell 3.4% and
Korean Air lost 1.6%.
Bitcoin was trading around $11,000 after plunging about 25% on
Tuesday.
Write to Kenan Machado at kenan.machado@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 16, 2018 21:14 ET (02:14 GMT)
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