Asia Pacific share market closed down on Friday, 18 August 2017, as a fatal terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain, turned investors risk averse and opt for safe havens. Meanwhile, ongoing concerns about the future course of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and his ability to deliver promised policies continued to weigh on the market too.
Market sentiment cooled following sharp declines in global markets overnight on the Barcelona vehicle attack, which left about a dozen people killed and scores of others injured.
Confidence was shaken after a van mowed through crowds of tourists in Barcelona on Thursday, 17 August 2017, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 100 in an attack authorities were treating as terrorism. More were hurt in a second incident in the resort town of Cambrils, which the government said was connected to the Barcelona attack. Spanish police said they had killed four attackers in a shootout south of the city overnight.
The news from Spain added to already downbeat sentiment amid growing doubts about U.S. President Donald Trump's ability to push through with his promised fiscal stimulus following rumors that Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, will quit. The White House denied the speculation. With the U.S. political turmoil, investors were concerned that (Trump's) economic agenda including tax cuts would be delayed further and they even doubted whether such policies could be realized.
US stocks tumbled overnight as the broader market appeared to be fretting about a number of bearish factors, including a record-setting market that has been viewed as too rich and due for a pullback, concerns about the health of the economy and the Federal Reserve's comfort in normalizing interest rates amid levels of inflation that have run below their 2% target, considered indicative of a normally functioning economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 274 points, or 1.2%, lower at 21,750, as the broader stock market faced its biggest selloff since last week's North Korea-fueled jitters. The S&P 500 index meanwhile, ended down 1.5% at 2,430 and the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.9% at 6,221.
Concerns have grown over Trump's ability to push through his economic goals such as tax cuts and infrastructure spending following the exodus of executives from two prominent business councils in reaction to his response to clashes last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump on Thursday, 17 August 2017, again decried the removal of pro-slavery Civil War Confederacy monuments, which have fuelled US racial tensions, stoking worries that some of his key policy staffers and aides may quit.
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Among Asian bourses
Australia Stocks stuck in the red
Australian equity market finished down for second straight session, amid broadbased losses following hefty declines on Wall Street overnight on political uncertainty and the Barcelona terror attack. The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.6% or 32.11 points to 5,747.1 at the close of trade.
Financial stocks were the biggest drag on mirroring a reflection of the sell-off we saw in the United States last night, with the "Big Four" banks - Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group down between 0.92% and 1.8%. Insurer QBE had fallen another 3.04% to A$10.83, following Thursday's 7.1% decline. The banks also came under pressure from a proposal by the government to strengthen its money laundering laws days after accusations against Commonwealth Bank of "serious and systemic" breaches of money laundering laws.
Mining shares were also sharply weaker after aluminium, copper and other base metals edged down from multi-year peaks overnight due to profit-booking and after Shanghai metals futures opened lower across the board. Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto fell 1.72% and 0.93%, respectively, while gold miner Newcrest Mining fell 0.85%.
Link Group's shares fell 2.92% to A$7.66 after it revealed it had more than doubled its full-year net profit to A$84.6 million in its sophomore earnings report following its entry to the ASX in October, 2015.
Kogan.com's shares soared 6.25% to A$2.55 after the online consumer goods retailer said its net profit had more than quadrupled to A$3.7 million with an expanded product range.
Primary Health Care shares rose 0.57% to A$3.55, after declaring a full-year loss of A$517 million, following a writedown in the value of its medical centres business.
Nikkei extends losing streak
The Japan share market finished down for third second session, due to the yen's strengthening against the dollar amid a risk-averse mood amid rising concerns over the fate of US President Donald Trump's economic agenda and fatal terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain. With the exception of the marine transportation and food sector, all industry categories closed in negative territory, with iron and steel, insurance and nonferrous metal-linked stocks comprising the day's biggest decliners. The Nikkei 225 average fell 232.22 points, or 1.18%, to 19,470.41, its lowest finish since May 2. The Topix, including all first-section issues, closed down 17.46 points, or 1.08%, at 1,597.36. Falling issues far outnumbered rising ones 1,672 to 279 in the TSE's first section, while 72 issues were unchanged. Volume rose to 1.671 billion shares from 1.436 billion shares on Thursday.
The stronger yen battered automakers Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Subaru, camera maker Canon, electronics maker Panasonic and technology firm Kyocera. Megabank groups Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho, insurers Dai-ichi Life and Sompo Holdings and brokerage firms Nomura and Daiwa met with selling after their U.S. peers fared poorly in New York trading on Thursday.
By contrast, brewers Asahi Group and Kirin as well as Japan Tobacco, which makes beverage in addition to cigarettes, attracted purchases. Also on the plus side were semiconductor-related Tokyo Electron and smartphone game developer KLab.
China Market closed steady
The Mainland China equity market ended virtually flat, with investor optimism over strong corporate earnings and economic fundamentals offsetting some pressure to take profits from recent gains. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended 0.01% higher, or 0.29 points, at 3,268.72, while the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, dipped 0.37%, or 7.13 points, to 1,902.25. The blue-chip CSI300 index tacked on 0.1%, to 3,725.09 points. The blue-chip CSI300 index tacked on 0.1%, to 3,725.09 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index was unchanged at 3,269.24 points.
China Nuclear Engineering Corp continued to build on its recent rises, jumping the daily limit of 10% to bring its weekly gains to 24.5%. On Wednesday, the company said that newly signed contracts in the first seven months increased 17.2% from the previous year.
Aluminum Corp of China trimmed its recent gains to end down 4.4% on Friday as investors locked in recent gains. The shares of China's largest aluminium producer fell despite it announcing that first-half net profit rose more than tenfold year-on-year, driven by high aluminium prices.
Hong Kong Stocks join global sell-off
The Hong Kong stock market finished softer, as risk sentiments dampened on worries about political turmoil in the US and a terrorist attack in Spain. The Hang Seng Index lost 1.08%, or 296.65 points, to 27,047.57 while the H-shares index declined 1.00%, or 107.77 points, to 10,693.65 points. Turnover stood at HK$84.48 billion.
Tech stocks declined on profit booking on following selloff in tech shares in the US market. Chinese online giant Tencent led the losses, declining 1.34% to HK$325. Lenovo Group, China's largest personal computer maker, lost 3.39% to HK$4.56 after it posted a surprise first-quarter loss of US$72 million on Thursday night, citing higher costs and a sluggish PC market.
Financial stocks remained in negative territory, with banks and insurers suffering the biggest losses. Shares of HSBC dropped 1.07% to HK$73.80 while ICBC lost 2.14% to HK$5.48. China Taiping fell 1.90% to HK$23.30 and China Life was down 1.28% to HK$23.15. Ping An Insurance rose 1.43% to HK$60.20, after posting a 6.5% increase in first-half profit.
Cathay Pacific advanced 1.70% to HK$12.00. Goldman Sachs upgraded the Hong Kong's flagship carrier stock to a Buy and raised its target price to HK$14.6. The investment bank expected passenger demand to improve due to better economic conditions in mainland China and Hong Kong. Credit Suisse upgraded the airline's rating to neutral from underperform and increased the target price to HK$11.3.
India Shares succumb to broader selling pressure
Key benchmark indices mirrored decline in global stock markets on rising doubts about US President Donald Trump's ability to deliver his economic agenda. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 270.78 points or 0.85% to settle at 31,524.68. The Nifty 50 index fell 66.75 points or 0.67% to settle at 9,837.40.
IT shares were mixed. MphasiS (up 1.78%), TCS (up 1.32%), HCL Technologies (up 0.97%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.74%) and Persistent Systems (up 0.57%), edged higher. Wipro (down 0.21%), Hexaware Technologies (down 1.51%), MindTree (down 2.03%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (down 2.85%), edged lower.
IT major Infosys fell 9.60% to Rs 923.10. Vishal Sikka has resigned as managing director and chief executive officer of Infosys. The board has accepted his resignation with immediate effect, the IT major said in a statement issued during trading hours today, 18 August 2017. Infosys said U.B. Pravin Rao, its chief operating officer, has been named as interim managing director and chief executive.
Telecom stocks were in demand. Reliance Communications (up 4.31%), Bharti Airtel (up 1.21%), Idea Cellular (up 0.95%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 0.44%), edged higher. MTNL fell 1.89%. Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel rose 4.16% to Rs 394.80.
Low-cost air carrier InterGlobe Aviation fell 0.49% to Rs 1,270.30 as the stock turned ex-dividend today, 18 August 2017, for dividend of Rs 34 per share for the year ended 31 March 2017. Before turning ex-dividend, the stock offered a dividend yield of 2.59% based on the closing price of Rs 1,310.50 on BSE yesterday, 17 August 2017.
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