SINGAPORE – Shares in Asia-Pacific were nearly lower in trading on Wednesday as concerns about the global pandemic recovery affected investor sentiment.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 1.1% in the morning trade, while the Topix index fell 1.49%. In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.11%.
Shares in mainland China also fell, with the Shanghai compound down 0.5%, while the Shenzhen component fell 0.308%. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 0.49%.
Shares in Australia reduced the global trend at the regional level, as the S & P / ASX 200 gained 0.55%.
MSCI’s broader Asia-Pacific stock index outside of Japan traded 0.43% lower.
Many regions around the world are seeing new cases of Covid-19 increase as highly contagious variants continue to spread, the World Health Organization said earlier this week. In Europe, authorities continue to fight the virus while the region fights a third Covid wave.
In corporate developments, Chinese Internet giant Tencent will announce its fourth quarter and annual results on Wednesday. Shares of Tencent in Hong Kong rose more than 1% in Wednesday morning trading.
In Taiwan, shares of semiconductor manufacturing company Taiwan, a chipmaking factory, fell more than 2% in Wednesday morning trading. That came after Intel announced it would spend $ 20 billion building two new chip factories in Arizona.
Meanwhile, Chinese broadcasting company Bilibili announced on Tuesday that it will raise 20.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $ 2.6 billion) in its next secondary listing in Hong Kong after setting the price of its shares at 808 Hong Kong dollars. Kong each. Shares of Bilibili are expected to start trading in Hong Kong on Monday.
Coins and oils
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, stood at 92,383 after a rise in levels below 91.8 earlier in the week.
The Japanese yen was trading at 108.54 per dollar, compared to levels around 108.9 against the green dollar seen earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.761 after falling above $ 0.768 yesterday.
Oil prices mixed in the morning of business hours in Asia, and international benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.13% to $ 60.87 a barrel. U.S. crude futures were below the flat line as they traded at $ 57.75 a barrel.