19 Februari 2016 2:29 AM
The sentiment on the Asian bourses turned sour on the final trading day of the week, bringing an end to the recent rebound as well as paring the biggest weekly upsurge since December 2011, as oil prices fell resumed the downtrend.
Nikkei drags rest of Asia lower
The Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 drops -2.15% to 15,856 points, mainly dragged by a stronger yen, which negatively impacts the exports oriented stocks. While renewed weakness in the black gold on the back of rising crude reserves also dampened investors’ sentiment. Meanwhile, USD/JPY remains heavily offered around 112.80, down -0.38% so far.
The Australian markets tracked its Japanese counterpart lower, with the ASX 200 index losing -0.63% to 4,960. Heavy losses in the banking and energy sector stocks led the decline in the region’s stock markets. The mining giant BHP Billiton was down 1.4%, Fortescue Metals dropped 2.6%, while Origin Energy plummeted over 5%.
While the Chinese equities also traded subdued, as the Chinese central bank drained a net 455 bln Yuan for the week via open market operations, a three year high. Among the indices, the Shanghai Composite drops -0.14%, Shenzhen’s CSI300 also trades 0.22 lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dips -0.50%.
The sentiment on the Asian bourses turned sour on the final trading day of the week, bringing an end to the recent rebound as well as paring the biggest weekly upsurge since December 2011, as oil prices fell resumed the downtrend.
