Tokyo stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, tainted by gloom on Wall Street the day before, while Hong Kong stocks were particularly pleased with the prospect of new fiscal measures to support China’s economy.
Tokyo’s flagship index, the Nikkei, fell 1.45% to 25,716.86 points at the close and the broader Topix index fell 1.25% to 1,868.15 points.
Wall Street continued its several-week downward trend on Tuesday, with fears of a recession in 2023 and the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) tight monetary policy remaining the focus of concern.
“For now, everything will probably revolve around the question of how much worse the economy will be than expected,” Ichiyoshi Asset Management’s Mitsushige Akino summed up, quoted by the Bloomberg agency.
The mood was radically different in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng Index jumped 2.37% after 06:30 GMT.
In an interview with Xinhua News Agency published on Tuesday, Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun pledged new fiscal measures to support growth in the world’s second-largest economy, long weakened by Beijing’s now-abandoned “zero Covid” strategy.
On the side of values
PARTNERS APPLE AND TESLA: Japanese firms that supply electronic components for Apple products suffered a stock drop as the American tech giant a day earlier in New York, particularly amid concerns over demand. TDK then fell 2.99% to 4,205 yen and Alps Alpine lost 1.58% to 1,178 yen.
Panasonic, which supplies electric batteries to Tesla, fell 1.71% to 1,091.5 yen after shares of the U.S. company fell further on Tuesday following the release of disappointing figures for EV deliveries in 2022.
On the side of currencies and oil
The yen appreciated against the dollar, which was worth 130.76 yen at around 06:50 GMT versus 131.02 yen on Tuesday at 21:00 GMT.
The Japanese currency remained stable against the euro, trading at 138.15 yen versus 138.19 yen the day before.
The Euro was trading at $1.0563 versus $1.0548 on Tuesday at 21:00 GMT.
The oil market continues to fall, after collapsing Tuesday on fears about global demand for black gold: around 00:45 GMT, the barrel of American WTI loses another 0.58% to 76.48 dollars and the barrel of Brent falls of the North Sea 0.5% to 81.69 dollars.
etb/nth