Asian stocks mostly edged lower on Tuesday, while the cost of
oil pulled back, as the selling sparked by the crisis in Ukraine
moderated.
Although Japan and South Korea continued to weaken, the moves
were small, as the situation in Ukraine hadn't deteriorated
significantly and stocks had already sold-off in the previous
session. On Monday, Ukraine accused the Kremlin of taking border
posts and increasing the size of its forces in the Crimea.
Japan's Nikkei fell by 0.3% as the yen softened slightly against
the dollar in Asian trade. The dollar was last at Yen101.53
compared with Yen101.44 late Monday in New York.
"The immediate and likely largest impact from the risk-off
sentiment due to the crisis in the Ukraine may have already
passed," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at
Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
Elsewhere in the region, South Korea's Kospi was down just 0.2%
and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added less than 0.1%.
The price of oil, which had jumped 2.3% on Monday, also eased
early on Tuesday. Nymex crude fell by 0.2% to $104.70 a barrel.
The situation in the Ukraine is the latest crisis to hurt
sentiment this year, and the performance of global markets
overnight was broadly negative with stocks in both the U.S. and
Europe dropping on Monday. Russia was hit the worst, as the Micex
index plunged 11% and the ruble touched a record low against the
dollar.
Asia has already weathered shocks from a number of emerging
markets in 2014, which has put much of the region in the red for
the year. Most notably, investors were spooked by concerns over
unrest in Turkey and renewed fears over the state of China's
economy. As a result, stocks spent much of February recovering from
a sell-off that started in January.
Brad Frischkorn contributed to this article.
Write to Daniel Inman at daniel.inman@wsj.com
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