SINGAPORE – Shares in Asia-Pacific fell on Friday as China left the benchmark loan rate unchanged.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.84% to close at 24,849.72, and Chinese technology stocks continue to largely experience another day of heavy losses as regulatory uncertainty around of the sector. Shares of Meituan fell 4.54%, while Alibaba fell 2.59% and JD.com fell 2.11%. Tencent, on the other hand, increased by 1%. The Hang Seng Tech index fell 2.46% to 5,895.06.
Shares in mainland China also closed lower, as the Shanghai composite fell 1.1% to 3,427.33 and the Shenzhen component fell 1.614% to 14,253.53.
On Friday, China’s one-year loan rate (LPR) and five-year LPR remained unchanged. This was in line with the expectations of most traders and analysts in a quick poll, according to Reuters.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.98% to close at 27,013.25, while the Topix index fell 0.87% to end the trading day at 1,880.68.
Shares of Japanese automakers continued to lose on Friday, while Toyota Motor fell 4.09%
Nissan Motor fell 7.25% and Honda Motor fell 4.84%.
This came after Toyota’s announcement on Thursday that it would reduce September world production by 40% over its previous plan, Reuters reported. Shares of Toyota fell more than 4% on Thursday after Nikkei first reported on the firm’s plan.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.2%, while the S & P / ASX 200 in Australia closed fractionally at 7,460.90.
MSCI’s broader Asia-Pacific stock index outside of Japan fell 1.15%.
Overnight, the S&P 500 gained 0.13% to 4,405.80, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.11% to 14,541.79. The Dow Jones industrial average lagged behind and fell 66.57 points to 34,894.12.
Coins and oils
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket from its peers, stood at 93,587 after rising earlier this week below 93.
The Japanese yen was trading at 109.62 per dollar, stronger than the levels above the 110 seen yesterday against the green dollar. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7115, after falling above $ 0.728 the previous week.
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of business hours in Asia, and international benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.27% to $ 66.27 a barrel. US crude oil futures fell about 0.1% to $ 63.61 a barrel.