Market risk sentiments dampened amid continued U.S.-China trade concern together with recent weak U.S. data which suggests a slowdown in U.S. economy. Also investors awaited for developments from U.S. President Donald Trump's state visit to Japan as well as results from the European parliamentary election. Market holidays in London and New York also sidelined many investors.
In Europe, early results and projections showed greater fragmentation in the European Parliament over the next five years. This year's vote was particularly relevant due to the surge of anti-EU and nationalist parties across the region. Britain's newly-formed Brexit Party looked set to comfortably beat the country's two main parties in the European parliamentary elections, according to exit polls and early results.
The market awaited the outcome of trade talks between the leaders of Japan and United States. On Monday, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold formal talks. A joint news conference will be held later in the global day. The market focus is on tariffs on autos after Trump has threatened to target Japanese automakers with high tariffs in his effort to cut trade surpluses with other countries, while they are optimistic about the developments after Trump tweeted about a progress in the Japan-U.S. talks. The president Trump said Tokyo and Washington were getting close to a deal that would address the U.S. trade deficit. The U.S. had a deficit of $56.8 billion in goods and services with Japan in 2018.
Shares of banks and financials declined after Australia's financial regulator warned last week that banks may face stricter external scrutiny and higher capital requirements unless they improved internal oversight. Commonwealth Bank fell 0.7% to A$77.64, and Westpac fell 0.7% to A$27.92.
Shares of materials and resources were higher, with BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue all up substantially.
Woolworths dropped 1.2% to A$32.30 after announcing the success of its off-market buy back. Woolworths massively scaled back offers for its A$1.7 billion share buyback after overwhelming demand from retirees and superannuation funds chasing franking credits. Announcing the outcome of the buyback on Monday, Woolworths said it had scaled back offers by 84.68%, meaning successful shareholders had only 15.32% of the shares they offered bought back, excluding the first 180 shares before the scale back applied. The buyback price was set at A$28.94 a share, the maximum 14% discount to the market price of A$33.64.
Vocus Group closed 17% higher at A$4.55 after opening its books to a European private equity firm for a proposed A$3.3bn takeover.
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