Asian stocks lower on strong China price data
Shares fell Friday in most Asian markets after China reported a stronger than expected rise in prices that could prompt authorities to act to cool inflation.
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Bangkok: Shares fell Friday in most Asian markets after China reported a stronger than expected rise in prices that could prompt authorities to act to cool inflation. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index rebounded after falling the day before. Shares declined in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Seoul. On Thursday, stocks closed moderately higher on Wall Street, lifted by gains in large technology companies that benefit from lower bond yields. But an increase in jobless claims dented some of the buying enthusiasm. China reported that consumer prices rose in March due to a jump in fuel prices, while producer prices climbed at the fastest pace in more than four years.
The consumer price index rose 0.4 per cent in March compared with minus 0.2 per cent in February, as fuel prices jumped nearly 12 per cent from a year earlier. Prices paid by manufacturers rose 4.4 per cent from a year earlier. Inflation reflects rising demand as China's economy leads the world recovery from the pandemic. Worries that stronger growth might spur inflation that regulators in many major economies would then move to cool, partly by raising interest rates, have been overhanging the markets for the past several months. Added to that, a fresh round of US sanctions, this time against seven Chinese supercomputer makers, has revived concern over trade friction between the two largest economies, said Jeffrey Halley of Oanda. "Asian markets are once again adopting a more cautious posture today. Geopolitics is never far from the surface, even if it is often lost in the global recovery noise," Halley said in a report.
The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.7 per cent to 3,456.74 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong also fell 0.7 per cent to 28,798.07. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.2 per cent to 6,985.20 and the Kospi in Seoul declined 0.1 per cent to 3,137.84. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.4 per cent to 29,814.51. Shares in Sony Corp. rose 2.7 per cent after the company signed an exclusive movie distribution deal with Netflix.
