Asia-Pacific stocks mostly rise; South Korean game developer Krafton collapses in debut

SINGAPORE – Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mostly up on Tuesday. Meanwhile, South Korean game developer Krafton dove into its early days.

South Korea’s wider Kospi slipped 0.53% to close at 3,243.19.

Shares of South Korean game developer Krafton have fallen 17% from its IPO price when it debuted in the market, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon. Krafton, the game creator behind the hit game PUBG, subsequently reduced some of those losses but still closed almost 9% lower.

Shares of companies linked to South Korean conglomerate Samsung fell on Tuesday. Shares of Samsung Electronics fell 1.6% while Samsung C&T fell 2.11%. Samsung Life Insurance slipped 0.52% and Samsung SDS fell 2.41%.

South Korea’s Justice Department said Monday that company heir Jay Y. Lee is expected to be paroled later this week, according to Reuters.

Mainland Chinese stocks closed higher on Tuesday. The Shanghai composite jumped 1.01% to 3,529.93 while the Shenzhen component gained 0.777% to 15,057.59.

Still, a growing resurgence of Covid in China will be watched by the markets as the country has reported more infections this week and cities have embarked on mass testing.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also rose around 1%, from its last hour of trading.

Shares of Evergrande Property Services, an arm of indebted Chinese developer China Evergrande, climbed around 15.83%. China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group jumped 7.2%.

Reuters had reported, citing sources, that Evergrande was in talks to sell stakes in its electric vehicle and property management businesses – China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group and Evergrande Property Services Group respectively.

In other markets, the Nikkei 225 in Japan closed 0.24% higher at 27,888.15 while the Topix index rose 0.36% to end the trading day at 1,936.28. The Australian S & P / ASX 200 climbed 0.32% to close at 7,562.60.

The largest MSCI index of Asia-Pacific equities excluding Japan rose 0.36%.

Overnight in the US, the Dow Jones lost 106.66 points to 35,101.85 while the S&P 500 slipped about 0.1% to 4,432.35. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, advancing 0.16% to 14,860.18.

Concerns over Covid’s impact on global growth continued to weigh on investor sentiment as countries grapple with the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus.

Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of trading hours in Asia on Tuesday after falling on Monday. International benchmark Brent crude futures rose 1.2% to $ 69.87 per barrel. US crude futures gained 1.55% to $ 67.51 per barrel.

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.968 after rising late last week from 92.4.

The Japanese yen was trading at 110.41 per dollar, lower than the levels below 109 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7339, below the above $ 0.735 levels seen yesterday.