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SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific dropped on Friday, with stocks in Hong Kong and Japan leading losses regionally as fears of a new Covid variant weighed on investor sentiment.
World Health Organization officials said Thursday they are monitoring a new variant with “a large number of mutations.” A special meeting is scheduled for Friday to discuss its implications for vaccines and treatments.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index saw sharp losses on Friday, falling 2.67% to close at 24,080.52. The variant has been detected in Hong Kong, according to South Africa’s Minister of Health Joe Phaahla.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan dropped 2.53% to close at 28,751.62 while the Topix index fell 2.01% to 1,984.98. Shares of SoftBank Group plummeted 5.19% following a Bloomberg report that Chinese regulators have asked Didi, which the Japanese conglomerate holds a sizable stake in, to delist from the U.S.
In mainland China, the Shanghai composite declined 0.56% to close at 3,564.09 while the Shenzhen component finished the trading day 0.342% lower at 14,777.17.
South Korea’s Kospi closed 1.47% lower at 2,936.44.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 1.73% on the day to 7,279.30. Australia’s retail sales in October jumped 4.9% month-on-month, seasonally adjusted, according to official estimates released Friday. That was far higher than the 2.5% increase predicted in a Reuters poll.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 2.18%.
Yen strengthens amid flight to safety
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.608 — still above levels below 96.5 seen earlier in the trading week.
The South African rand weakened more than 2% against the greenback, last trading at 16.3177 per dollar.
The Australian dollar fell to $0.7118, extending losses following yesterday’s drop from levels above $0.72.
Oil drops more than 4%
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 4.38% to $78.62 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 5.17% to $74.34 per barrel.
Travel stocks in Asia-Pacific fell on Friday amid the renewed Covid fears.
In Australia, Qantas Airways shares dropped 5.48% while Hong Kong-listed shares of Cathay Pacific slipped 4.11%. Shares of Japan Airlines in Japan plunged 6.48%. Singapore Airlines’ stock in Singapore declined 3.43% as of 4:13 p.m. local time.
Markets in the U.S. were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/asia-markets-australia-retail-sales-data-covid-currencies-oil.html
