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Asian Stock Market: Trades mixed as risk sentiment sours, Hang Seng tumbles 2%

  • Asian stocks show mixed trend as the fresh week begins tracking Wall Street price action.
  • China’ Evergrande debt-ridden default risk, US-China tussle, inflationary concerns took a toll on investors' risk tolerance capacity.
  • The Japanese media reportes a snap election on October 31, RBA decision due on Tuesday.

Asian stocks continue to perform under pressure amid mixed concerns on China’s Evergrande default risk, interest rate hike signals from major central banks, and the concerns of the Delta variant of the coronavirus risk.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-pacific shares outside Japan declined 0.3%. The index marked its first quarterly fall in six quarters.

The Shanghai Composite Index will be closed until Thursday for the National Day holiday, South Korea’s market remains closed too. Japan’s Nikkei fell more than 1%, extending the losses for the fifth straight session.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.9% after trading in shares of debt-ridden China Evergrande was suspended after it missed a key interest payment on its offshore debt obligation in the previous month.

The ASX 200 gained 1.07% following the progress in the battle against COVID-19. Traders are waiting for the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) interest rate decision to be announced on Tuesday.

Author

Rekha Chauhan

Rekha Chauhan

Independent Analyst

Rekha Chauhan has been working as a content writer and research analyst in the forex and equity market domain for over two years.

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