Asian Stock Market: Mildly offered amid off in Tokyo

Although the return of the coronavirus (COVID-19) woes weighs on the market sentiment, Asian equities could print only mild losses as markets in Japan are off on Monday and Tuesday. As a result, the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares, ex-Japan, drops 0.30% while heading into Monday’s European session.

Australia’s ASX drops 0.70% as China’s Global Times flashed indirect signs of a war with the Pacific major if it chooses to follow the US. In doing so, the Aussie barometer ignores weekend comments from Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping conveying economic optimism. Further, New Zealand’s NZX 50 drops around 1.0% by the press time even as lockdown conditions in ex-Auckland have been reduced to alert level 01. The reason could be traced to the anticipated bearish tone from Wednesday’s Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) statement.

Moving on, markets in China stayed depressed as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) refrained from further stimulus while Xinhua cited the injection of 210 billion Yuan into the dragon nation’s markets.

Elsewhere, stocks in Hong Kong, Indonesia and South Korea also remain downbeat but India’s BSE Sensex buck the trend with 0.14% gains to 38,895 as we write.

It’s worth mentioning that the fears of another national lockdown in the UK and the Tehran-Washington tussle are some additional catalysts that weighed on the risk-tone sentiment. As a result, S&P 500 Futures mark a four-day losing streak while declining 0.30% by the press time.

Looking forward, a light calendar can restrict the market moves ahead of the US session where a bunch of Fed policymakers, including Chairman Jerome Powell, are up for speaking at different venues.