Sentiment swung back to hesitation this afternoon here in Asia with most bourses reversing course from its sharp rise to the start of the trading week, led by dual breakouts of coronavirus – both Tokyo and Victoria. The euphoria over the surge in Chinese shares is wearing off with US and Euro futures looking down going into the London open, with currencies also feeling the strength of USD again.
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was up over 1% at one stage, but has slowed down in its advance towards the close, up only 0.7% to 3361 points. Meanwhile in occupied Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index has reversed course after gapping higher at the open, down 0.5% to 26202 points, but this has only taken a little bit off the shine of this big breakout:
Japanese stocks put in poor sessions too, with the Nikkei 225 falling nearly 0.7% to 22558 points with the USDJPY pair bouncing off support to be at the mid 107 level and back to its start of week opening point:
The ASX200 has eventually closed with a scratch session, losing only a handful of points after being up at the open but sold off due to the Victorian viral outbreak, closing 0.1% lower at 6012 points. The Australian dollar initially held at the RBA meeting outcome – no change – but has since sold off going into the City open, falling straight back to the mid 69 level and threatening the uptrend from last week:
Eurostoxx futures are down about 0.5% while S&P futures are also rolling over, down 0.4% now and looking to take back some of last night’s exuberance with resistance at 3130 points needing to hold here:
