SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific largely declined on Monday, as oil prices declined around 3%.
Taiwan’s Taiex led losses regionally, falling 1.65% as shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped more than 2%.
Mainland Chinese stocks also saw sizable losses as the Shanghai composite shed 1.29% while the Shenzhen component declined 1.518%.
Data released over the weekend showed Chinese industrial profits grew in the first two months of the year. Profits at China’s industrial firms rose 5.0% for the January to February period as compared with a year earlier, according to data released Sunday.
Investors have been watching for clues on policy easing from Chinese authorities amid concerns over the outlook for the economic powerhouse as it grapples with issues such as its worst Covid outbreak since the initial height of the pandemic in early 2020.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.78% while the Topix index shed 0.48%. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.45%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 bucked the overall trend regionally as it gained 0.47%. Singapore’s Straits Times index also climbed 0.33%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific outside Japan traded 0.69% lower.
Oil prices declined in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 2.79% to $117.28 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 3.07% to $110.40 per barrel.
China tech watch
Investors monitored shares of Meituan and other Chinese tech stocks in Hong Kong.
In Monday morning trade, shares of Meituan soared more than 5% while Tencent climbed 0.79%.
Meituan on Friday posted better-than-expected revenue for the last three months of 2021. The company’s revenue for the fourth quarter came in at 49.52 billion yuan ($7.78 billion), above mean analyst expectations for a 49.2 billion yuan print, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon.
Other Chinese tech stocks, however, slipped: Baidu shed 0.63% while JD.com plunged 5.59%. The Hang Seng Tech index traded 0.21% lower.
“Even if you look now, where we see very significant and sharp falls so that valuations now are at much more reasonable levels, I think it’s still quite difficult for investors … to really build the courage to go back in at these levels,” Mark Konyn, group chief investment officer at AIA, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 99.062 following a recent climb from below 98.7.
The Japanese yen traded at 112.82 per dollar, weaker than levels below 120 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar was at $0.75, having risen from below $0.74 last week.
