- July 24, 2024
- By: Admin1_blog
- Asia Market, Indices
Lim Hui Jie
KEY POINTS
- Australia saw its private sector activity expand at a slower pace in July, with the composite purchasing managers index at 50.2 compared to 50.7 in June, according to Juno Bank.
- The region will also look for any spillover to tech and EV stocks after U.S. tech giants Alphabet and Tesla reported their second quarter earnings, with Tesla falling short of estimates.
Asia-Pacific markets are mixed on Wednesday as traders assessed July business activity data from Australia and Japan, and tech earnings from the U.S.
The region will also look for any spillover effect on tech and EV stocks after U.S. tech giants Alphabet and Tesla reported their second-quarter earnings, with Tesla falling short of estimates.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index climbed 0.15%, but the mainland Chinese CSI 300 was down 0.22%. Most tech stocks on the Hang Seng Tech index were up, but EV stocks Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto suffered losses.
Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry — known internationally as Foxconn — will invest 1 billion yuan ($138 million) for a new business headquarters in China, Reuters reported. Trading in Taiwan was suspended due to a typhoon.
| TICKER | COMPANY | NAME | PRICE | CHANGE | %CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .N225 | Nikkei 225 Index | *NIKKEI | 39227.24 | -367.15 | -0.93 |
| .HSI | Hang Seng Index | *HSI | 17351.74 | -117.62 | -0.67 |
| .AXJO | S&P/ASX 200 | *ASX 200 | 7962.5 | -8.6 | -0.11 |
| .SSEC | Shanghai | *SHANGHAI | 2913.19 | -2.18 | -0.07 |
| .KS11 | KOSPI Index | *KOSPI | 2762.53 | -11.76 | -0.42 |
| .FTFCNBCA | CNBC 100 ASIA IDX | *CNBC 100 | 9962.79 | -14.92 | -0.15 |
Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.19%, while the broad-based Topix was down 0.35%. Flash data from the au Jibun Bank showed that the country’s business activity returned to growth.
Japan’s composite purchasing managers’ index for July was at 52.6, up from 49.7 in June. This was “indicative of solid growth” among Japanese private sector firms, the report said.
Late Tuesday, automaker Toyota said it will buyback 806.85 billion yen ($5.17 billion) of its shares from major Japanese banks and insurers, including Tokio Marine, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.
The company said this was part of “ongoing efforts to reduce cross-shareholdings in order to build a lean balance sheet. Shares of Toyota rose 0.74%.
In contrast, South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.1%, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.84%.
Heavyweight Samsung Electronics plunged 1.43%, even as Reuters reported that chip giant Nvidia had cleared its chips for use in a processor for the China market.
The South Korean electronics company is still grappling with a strike from its largest workers union, with talks on Tuesday yielding no results, according to the National Samsung Electronics Union, which has about 30,000 members.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.18%, after the country saw its private sector activity expand at a slower pace in July, with the composite purchasing managers’ index dropping to a six-month low of at 50.2 compared to 50.7 in June, according to Juno Bank.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 dipped 0.16% to close at 5,555.74, a day after it notched its best performance in more than a month.
The Nasdaq Composite inched down 0.06%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.14%.
Source : cnbc
