SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Monday morning trade, as investors are expected to monitor shares of China’s tech giants following the release of new anti-monopoly guidelines over the weekend.
Shares of South Korean automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors plunged in Monday morning trade, falling 6.01% and 13.1%, respectively.
It came after the two firms announced they are “not in talks with Apple on autonomous vehicle development,” according to CNBC’s translation of their regulatory filings.
The broader Kospi in South Korea also declined about 0.5%.
Elsewhere, stocks in the region mostly rose.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose about 1.5% while the Topix index gained 1.5%.
Meanwhile, shares in Australia advanced as the S&P/ASX 200 gained about 0.7%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded about 0.1% higher.
Investors will be watching Hong Kong listed shares of Chinese tech giants Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com on Monday. That comes after China’s State Administration for Market Regulation released a new set of rules that are set to put pressure on leading internet services in the country such as Alibaba’s Taobao or Tencent’s WeChat Pay, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration was prepared for “extreme competition” with China, though his approach would be different than his predecessor.
“I’m not going to do it the way Trump did. We are going to focus on the international rules of the road,” Biden said in a CBS interview published Sunday. Biden also said during the interview that he had not spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping yet since he was sworn in last month.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 91.053 following a recent decline from levels above 91.2.
The Japanese yen traded at 105.49 per dollar, having weakened last week from levels below 104.8 against the greenback. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7673 following a spike last last week from levels below 0.762.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.89% to $59.87 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.95% to $57.39 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Amanda Macias and Chery Kang contributed to this report.
Source: CNBC