SINGAPORE — Tech stocks in Hong Kong pulled the broader index lower on Monday as Asia markets traded mixed. SoftBank reported earnings after the market close in Japan.
Alibaba dropped 4.41% and JD.com slipped 3.26%. The Hang Seng index ended the session 0.77% lower at 20,045.77.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific jumped 1.42% after authorities announced that hotel quarantine for travelers would be reduced to three days from seven days, though there would be a four-day surveillance period after the quarantine.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed mildly higher at 7,020.6.
Shares of Oz Minerals spiked 35.25% after the company rejected BHP’s 8.34 billion Australian dollar ($5.76 billion) takeover bid.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan was up 0.26% at 28,249.24, while the Topix index was 0.22% higher at 1,951.41.
SoftBank shares were 0.74% higher ahead of Monday’s earnings announcement, where the tech company’s Vision Fund posted a 2.93 trillion Japanese yen ($21.68 billion) loss for the June quarter.
The tech giant’s overall net loss for the quarter was 3.16 trillion yen, compared to a 761.5 billion yen profit a year ago.
South Korea’s Kospi was slightly higher at 2,493.1 and the Kosdaq shed 0.09% to 830.86.
Chipmaker SK Hynix slipped 2.23% on Monday after the Korea Herald reported that a South Korean city, Yeoju, wants more compensation in exchange for letting the company build pipes to transport huge amounts of water to its plant in a different city.
Mainland China markets were positive. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.31% to 3,236.93 and the Shenzhen Component rose 0.27% to 12,302.15.
Over the weekend, China reported trade data for July that showed dollar-denominated exports grew 18% compared to a year ago.
That’s the fastest pace of growth this year and beat analysts’ expectations for a 15% increase, Reuters reported.
China’s dollar-denominated imports increased 2.3% in July compared to the same period in 2021, lower than the expected 3.7% gain.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.39%.
On Friday in the U.S., nonfarm payrolls came in at 528,000, far above expectations. Treasury yields rose strongly as traders adjusted their forecasts for Fed rates higher.
“Binary risks between policy-induced recession and run-away inflation continues to grow; imposing much higher dangers of policy miscalculations,” Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank, wrote in a Monday note.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 106.611 after a sharp jump following the payrolls data release.
The Japanese yen traded at 135.31 per dollar after the greenback strengthened. The Australian dollar was at $0.6951.
U.S. crude futures added 1.07% to $89.96 per barrel, while Brent crude gained 1.15% to $96.01 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
Source: CNBC