SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mostly lower in Wednesday morning trade, with stocks in Hong Kong struggling to bounce back from a two-day rout.
In morning trading on Wednesday, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 0.22%. That followed a more than 8% decline over two days earlier this week triggered by regulatory fears over sectors such as technology and private education.
Analysts at Bespoke Investment Group pointed out that there had only been one other period in 2011 when the Hang Seng declined more than 7.5% for two days. Since then, they wrote: “There hasn’t been a single two-day decline since the Financial Crisis that has exceeded the magnitude of the last two days.”
Chinese tech stocks in Hong Kong, among the hardest hit in the recent sell-off, were mixed in Wednesday morning trade.
Shares of internet giant Tencent in Hong Kong dropped 3.18% while Alibaba inched 0.44% higher and Meituan jumped 1.65%. The Hang Seng Tech index traded 1.13% higher.
Stocks of firms in the private education space, another sector hit by regulatory scrutiny, bounced back after heavy losses earlier in the week: New Oriental Education & Technology Group gained 8.21% while Koolearn Technology jumped 8.9%.
Mainland Chinese stocks continued slipping: The Shanghai composite fell 0.43% while the Shenzhen component declined 0.101%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 declined 1.15% while the Topix index slipped 0.73%. South Korea’s Kospi was flat.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia dipped 0.7%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.4% lower.
Stock watch
Mitsubishi Motors’ stock in Japan surged more than 8% in Wednesday trade after the automaker upgraded its operating profit forecast by 33.3% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.446 following a recent drop from above 92.7.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.79 per dollar, stronger than levels above 110.4 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7366, above levels below $0.732 seen last week.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.68% to $74.99 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.78% to $72.21 per barrel.
Source: CNBC