Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led losses in the region, dropping around 2%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 dropped 0.81% to end at 3,475.84
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Friday after an inflation-fuelled selloff in the earlier session, with investor evaluating economic data from Singapore and South Korea.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led losses in the region, dropping around 2%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 dropped 0.81% to end at 3,475.84.
The losses come as China’s exports for March dropped more than expected, dropping 7.5% compared to the 2.3% decline expected by economists polled by Reuters. This follows a weaker-than-expected increase in the country’s inflation on Thursday.
Singapore’s first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) jumped 2.7% year on year, advance estimates showed, faster than the 2.2% growth logged in the last quarter of 2023.
The city-state’s central bank held its monetary policy steady, leaving the width and level of its policy band unchanged. In contrast to other countries, Singapore uses exchange rate settings for its monetary policy, instead of a benchmark interest rate.
South Korea’s March unemployment rate increased to 2.8%. The country’s benchmark Kospi index slipped 0.93% and closed at 2,681.82, but the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 0.28% and ended at 860.47 after South Korea’s central bank kept policy rates unchanged at 3.5%, a 15-year high.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 0.21% to 39,523.55, while the broad-based Topix added 0.46% and closed at 2,759,64. The yen continued to drop against the dollar, reaching as low as 153.29.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slid 0.33% to extend losses from Thursday and close at 7,788.1.
Overnight in the U.S., tech shares pulled both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite into positive territory, with both indexes adding 0.74% and 1.68%, respectively.
On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) slid 2.43 points, or 0.01%.
