Asia stocks sag on trade fears war, US $ buoyant – Business News



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TOKYO: Asian stocks in the US-China trade war, while the dollar stood stall after rallying against its peers amid the turmoil in

MSCI's broadest index of Asia -pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.25 percent.

The index slumped 1 percent on Wednesday along with a slide in global equities after US President Donald Trump's threat of imposing tariffs on another $ 200 billion of Chinese goods deepened the trade between the world's two

Australian stocks rose 0.35 percent, South Korea's KOSPI was flat and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.75 percent.

"The markets had some time to digest the world. "Said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mits," said Masahiro Ichikawa, a senior executive strategist at Sumitomo Mits. ui Asset Management.

The dollar was buoyant, supported by mounting trade tensions and strong US inflation data.

The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was steady at 94.703 after gaining 0.6 percent overnight.

Against the yen, which usually wins in times of political tension and market turmoil, the greenback rallied 0.9 percent on Wednesday to touch a six-month high above Yen 112.00

"The dollar has managed to gain even more against the yen due to ongoing trade, with commodity-related currencies, with supplying a broad lift for the dollar, "said Ichikawa at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.

Commodity-linked currencies such as the Australian dollar suffered deep losses on Wednesday. The Aussie traded little changed at $ 0.7366 after dropping 1.2 cents overnight.

The Canadian dollar was steady at C $ 1.3208 per dollar following a loss of 0.75 percent the previous day.

The euro was flat at $ 1.1675 after shedding 0.6 percent on

In commodities, US crude futures inched up 0.25 percent to $ 70.57 a barrel after tumbling 5 percent the previous day as trade tensions threatened to hurt oil demand and news that Libya would reopen its ports. [O/R]

Brent crude rose 0.7 percent to $ 73.93 a barrel after tanking 6.9 percent overnight.- Reuters

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