SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Monday morning trade as Brent crude futures hovered close to $76 ahead of another meeting between OPEC and its allies.
Tech shares in Asia were mostly lower. Shares of Chinese tech firms in Hong Kong fell in Monday morning trade as regulatory fears resurfaced.
Tencent shares fell 1.65% while Alibaba dropped 2% and Meituan slipped 3.42%. The broader Hang Seng TECH index in Hong Kong also declined 0.92%.
Stocks of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group also plunged more than 5% in Monday morning trade.
The losses came after Chinese regulators claimed SoftBank-backed Didi illegally collected users’ personal data and ordered app stores to stop offering Didi’s app. The move came just days after the ride-hailing giant’s market debut on the New York Stock Exchange.
“The app can no longer be downloaded in China, although existing users who had previously downloaded and installed the app on their phones prior to the takedown may continue using it,” Didi said in a Sunday release. The company had earlier announced Friday that it had suspended new user registration in China.
Data from China and Australia
Investors were also watching economic data from Australia and China.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia rose 0.1%. Australia’s retail sales data rose 0.4% in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, final retail trade figures released Monday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed. That was higher than the May preliminary result of a 0.1% rise.
Mainland Chinese stocks edged higher as the Shanghai composite rose 0.16% while the Shenzhen component advanced 0.327%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was near flat.
A private survey on China’s services sector activity in June showed growth slowing sharply in June to a 14-month low. The Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index for June, released Monday, came in at 50.3 — a significant decline from May’s reading of 55.1.
Still, it held above the 50-level in PMI readings indicating growth on a monthly basis.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.54% while the Topix index shed 0.42%. South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.42% higher. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.31% higher.
Oil moves
Oil prices dipped in the morning of Asia trading hours, after rising late last week as OPEC and its allies, collectively referred to as OPEC+, failed to reach an agreement on output policy.
International benchmark Brent crude futures slipped 0.3% to $75.96 per barrel following a rise last week from below $74.40 per barrel.
U.S. crude futures dipped 0.23% to $74.99 per barrel but still largely held on to last week’s gains from below $72.80 per barrel.
The group will meet again on Monday. All the members except the United Arab Emirates agreed to an easing of cuts and their extension to the end of next year, according to Reuters citing an OPEC+ source.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.293 after a recent decline from above 92.4.
The Japanese yen traded at 111.07 per dollar, stronger than levels above 111.2 against the greenback seen late last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7516 after a recovery last week from below $0.748.
— CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Christine Wang contributed to this report.
Source: CNBC