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Asian stock markets fell largely on Friday, wiping out the week's gains in Taiwan and Malaysia, while Japan's Nikkei barely kept up the gains. The biggest drop, however, was in Hong Kong, where equities lost more than 2% to extend the week's losses.
In addition to lingering concerns over US-China trade relations, investors have weighed up data showing that consumer inflation has risen. Financial services in China and Hong Kong came under pressure after the country's banking and insurance regulator announced private sector credit support.
In addition, Friday's losses could be a new sign that last week's rebound in early November, which has given a number of Asian indexes their best week in years, did not dispel the country's concerns. market that have been going on for months.
"Although the mid-term elections are over, the worry that the US-China trade war is going on forever is long," said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi. UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
Nikkei from Japan
NIK -1.05%
fell 1%, sliding from its 2 and a half week high on Thursday. Nikon
7731, -9.44%
fell by 9%, while the robot manufacturer Fanuc
6954, -4.79%
slipped around 5% and Nintendo
7974 -2.64%
decreased by 2.8%.
After advancing 6 of the last 7 trading days, the Hang Seng Hong Kong Index
HSI, -2.39%
was down 2.4%. Technology remains weak, with AAC smartphone component manufacturers
2018 -1.61%
and Sunny Optical
2382 -1.30%
both down about 4%; they fell 19% and 12% respectively this week, and AAFC is trading at its lowest level in two and a half years. Meanwhile, heavy Internet Tencent
7:00 -4.90%
was down 4% after a nocturnal weakness in the US for its ADR. Energy stocks fell in the same way that US oil prices entered bearish territory on Thursday.
The Shanghai Composite in China
SHCOMP, -1.39%
fell by 1.3% – on the pace of a fifth consecutive decline – while the smaller-capitalization Shenzhen Composite
399,106, -0.43%
was just 0.3%. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
1398 -2.73%
fell by 2.7%, while the Agricultural Bank of China
1288 -3.31%
fell by more than 3%. Guo Shuqing, chairman of China's Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), also reportedly said banks must give at least a third of new loans to private companies.
Kospi from South Korea
SEU, -0.31%
fell 0.3%, while benchmarks in Taiwan
Y9999, -1.16%
, Singapore
IST -0.49%
and Malaysia
FBMKLCI, -0.77%
also posted declines.
Australian stocks
XJO, -0.11%
down 0.1% driven by energy stocks, with Woodside Petroleum
WPL, -1.32%
and looking for oil
OSH, -1.41%
more than 1% each. New Zealand equities
NZ50GR, + 0.40%
resisted the regional trend, slightly up.
– Barbara Kollmeyer contributed to this report
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