Asian Markets Mixed; Nikkei Underperforms on Weak GDP Data

By Alex Ho

Investing.com – Asian markets were mixed on Monday morning, with Japan’s underperforming its regional peers after data showed the country’s economy shrank at the fastest pace in six years.

The was down 0.8% by 10:55 PM ET (02:55 GMT). Japan’s in the December quarter fell an annualized 6.3%, faster than the expected 3.7% contraction, data from the Cabinet Office showed on Monday.

The drop, which followed a revised 0.5% gain in July-September, was the biggest since a 7.4% decline marked in April-June 2014.

China’s and the gained 1.3% and 2.0% respectively as investors continued to monitor the potential economic fallout from the coronavirus in China.

On Sunday, China reported 1,933 new cases, down from 2,009 the previous day, and 100 new deaths, down one from 142 the previous day.

“The worrying human and economic toll of the COVID-19 outbreak is creating much uncertainty, especially as changes to the case tracking methods are making news difficult to interpret,” John Bromhead from ANZ Research wrote in a morning note.

The traded 0.8% higher even after the Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the city is facing “tsunami-like” shocks.

He said in a blog post on Sunday that economic fallout due to the virus outbreak is being felt beyond retail, food and beverage and tourism-related industriesand can cause the unemployment rate to “Deteriorate rapidly.”

South Korea’s and Australia’s both inched down 0.1%.

Elsewhere, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry downgraded its forecast range for the change in the country’s annual gross domestic product to between -0.5% and 1.5% from the previous 0.5% and 2.5% range.

“The (earlier) forecast was premised on a modest pickup in global growth, along with a recovery in the global electronics cycle, in 2020. Since then, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected China, Singapore and many countries around the world,” the ministry said in a statement.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.