HONG KONG, Oct 24: Asian stocks closed lower on Monday in uncertain trade after Wall Street failed to provide a solid lead for investors who remain anxious after recent sharp falls amid forecasts of rising inflation, dealers said.
Australia brought the issue closer to home with wholesale prices making their biggest quarterly jump in more than four years, refuelling the prospect that inflation is rising and interest rates will follow suit.
Rising prices have dominated regional sentiment, since oil prices struck historically high levels in recent months, and continues to cloud the global economic outlook.
On the day, Mumbai, Singapore and Tokyo were among the worse performers falling 1.84, 0.74 and 0.71 per cent respectively. Hong Kong was 0.59 per cent lower, Kuala Lumpur fell 0.54 per cent and Sydney eased 0.16 per cent.
Seoul was flat with negative sentiment partially lifted after a rating upgrade was issued amid signs of an easing in tensions between North and South Korea. Wellington and Bangkok were closed for public holidays.
TOKYO: Share prices closed 0.71 per cent lower as the market turned cautious ahead of a rush of earnings reports this week from leading Japanese companies.
“Today, there were no leads on which investors could buy actively ... they are waiting for results from Sony and others due out later this week,” said Hideo Mizutani, a chief strategist at Sieg Securities.
Japanese companies including Advantest, Sony, NEC, Honda, NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Corp will release their results for the first half to September this week.
The Nikkei-225 index lost 93.77 points to 13,106.18 on turnover of 1.99 billion shares.
Several companies such as Pioneer are now forecasting results worse than originally expected.
Among other high-tech stocks, Rohm shed 380 yen to 9,590, Tokyo Electron dropped 180 to 5,720, Nikon slid 33 to 1,436 and Canon closed down 100 to 6,040.
HONG KONG: Share prices closed 0.59 per cent lower as the market continued to consolidate, with many investors unwilling to take strong positions in the absence of fresh leads following Wall Street’s weak performance on Friday.
The Hang Seng index closed down 85.50 points at 14,402.35. Turnover was 16.23 billion Hong Kong dollars (2.1 billion US).
Sun Hung Kai Properties fell 0.45 to 74.30, while China Mobile shed 0.35 to 34.65 and PetroChina eased 0.05 at 5.65.
SYDNEY: Share prices closed 0.16 per cent lower as resource stocks lost favour following a fall in base metal prices late last week.
The S and P/ASX 200 index ended down 7.1 points at 4,357.2. A total of 918.9 million shares worth 3.51 billion dollars (2.6 billion US) were traded.
SINGAPORE: Share prices closed 0.74 per cent lower as the market continued to consolidate in the absence of fresh leads.
The Straits Times Index fell 16.53 points to 2,222.83. Volume was 718 million shares valued at 638 million Singapore dollars (378 million US).
KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.54 per cent lower, tracking Friday’s downturn on Wall Street in the absence of a local lead.
The Composite Index was down 4.88 points to 904.70. Volume was 343.36 million shares, worth 769.78 million ringgit (204 million dollars).
Among blue chips, Tenaga Nasional was down 0.20 ringgit at 10.30, Telekom Malaysia fell 0.15 to 9.95 and Maybank lost 0.10 to 11.30.
JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.27 per cent lower in quiet trade, with investors holding back from building up positions ahead of the Eid-al-Fitr Islamic holiday next month.
The composite index shed 2.880 points to 1,073.082. Volume was 632.92 million shares worth 805.74 billion rupiah (79.97 million dollars).
MUMBAI: Share prices closed 1.84 per cent lower as investors anticipated a hike in short-term interest rates by the central bank in its upcoming mid-term economic review. —AFP