SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks were mixed in the morning after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 fell on Wall Street overnight.
South Korea’s wider Kospi slumped 0.8%.
According to data from Refinitiv Eikon, the shares of South Korean game developer Krafton plunged up to 17% from its IPO on its market debut. Krafton, the game manufacturer behind the blockbuster game PUBG, recently reduced the losses to more than 13%.
Shares in companies associated with South Korean conglomerate Samsung fell in trading on Tuesday morning. Samsung Electronics shares were down 1.35% while Samsung C&T fell 2.46%. Samsung Life Insurance slipped 0.91%.
The South Korean Justice Department announced Monday that the company’s heir, Jay Y. Lee, will be released on parole later this week, according to Reuters.
Mainland stocks were subdued in early trading. The Shanghai composite lost 0.23% while the Shenzhen component was just above the flat line.
Concerns over a widening Covid resurgence in China continued to weigh on sentiment as China reported more infections this week and cities began mass testing.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost around 0.4%.
Shares in Evergrande Property Services, a branch of indebted Chinese developer China Evergrande, rose roughly 11% in early trading. The China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group rose around 6%.
Reuters, citing sources, reported that Evergrande was in talks to sell stakes in its electric vehicle and property management businesses – China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group and Evergrande Property Services Group, respectively.
In other markets, the Nikkei 225 in Japan was up 0.24% while the Topix index was up 0.54%. The Australian S & P / ASX 200 rose 0.03%.
MSCI’s broadest index for Asia Pacific stocks outside of Japan fell 0.28%.
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Overnight in the States, the Dow fell 106.66 points to 35,101.85 while the S&P 500 lost about 0.1% to 4,432.35. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, increasing 0.16% to 14,860.18.
Concerns about the impact of Covid on global growth continued to weigh on investor sentiment as countries grappled with the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus.
Oil prices are rising
Oil prices were higher on the morning of Tuesday’s Asian session after falling on Monday. The international benchmark Brent crude oil futures slipped 0.1% to $ 69.03 per barrel. US crude oil futures rose 0.27% to $ 66.65 a barrel.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its competitors, hit 93.001 after rising below 92.4 late last week.
The Japanese yen was trading at 110.34 per dollar, weaker than below 109 against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7318, below $ 0.735 yesterday’s level.
