Home World Asia-Pacific shares mixed; Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng fizzles in Hong Kong debut

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Wednesday trade following losses on Wall Street with the S&P 500 ending its seven-day winning streak.

Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng made its debut in Hong Kong on Wednesday, with shares slipping 0.85% from their issue price by the afternoon after rising nearly 2% in the early moments of trading. The broader Hang Seng index in the city slipped 0.74%.

Mainland Chinese stocks were higher, with the Shanghai composite rising 0.44% while the Shenzhen component advanced 1.556%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.93% while the Topix index declined 0.82%. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.6%.

Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.34%.

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S&P 500 ends winning streak

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 shed 0.2% to 4,343.54 — snapping a seven-day winning streak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 208.98 points to 34,577.37 while the Nasdaq Composite closed at a new record, rising 0.17% to 14,663.64.

Oil prices nudge higher

Oil prices were mildly higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours following a plunge overnight, with international benchmark Brent crude futures marginally higher at $74.55 per barrel. U.S. crude futures advanced 0.12% to $73.46 per barrel.

Crude prices were volatile overnight. After jumping to the highest in six years, gains were wiped out, with U.S. crude losing more than 2%, while Brent tumbled more than 3%. Those swings followed an indefinite postponement of talks between OPEC and its oil-producing allies after the group failed to reach an agreement on its output policy for August and beyond.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.531 following a recent bounce from below 92.1.

The Japanese yen traded at 110.58 per dollar, stronger than levels above 110.8 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7493, lower than levels above $0.756 seen yesterday.

— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.

Source: CNBC

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