Asian markets mixed as China enters partial lockdown

SYDNEY, NSW, Australia -- Sharemarkets in Asia were mixed on Monday. China's Shenzen went into a lock-up recently after a major spike in Covid 19 cases.

ANZ Research said that China is experiencing the largest wave of COVID since the end of national lockdown in March 2020, according to a Monday note by Raymond Yeung and Zhaopeng Xing.

China's economic growth will be affected if the lockdown is extended. The ANZ analysts said it was too early to change our GDP growth forecast of 5.0% for 2022 but we are wary of the impact of a partial lockdown in the economically rich provinces.

The Shanghai Composite in China fell 86.21 points or 2.60 percent to close Monday at 3,223. The Hang Seng plunged 1,053 in Hong Kong, where the real damage was done. 95 points or 5.13 percent of the population is projected to be 19,499. Tech stocks were hardest hit with the Hang Seng tech index shedding more than 11 percent. Alibaba fell 11.12 percent. Meituan was down 16 percent, while TenCent fell 9.41 percent.

The All Ordinaries in Australia rose by 69.60 points or 0.95 percent to 7.408. The S&P NZX 50 moved 16.27 points or 0.14 percent to 11,805 across the Tasman. 59 percent of the population was at 2,645. The key Japanese index, the Nikkei 225, added 145.07 points or 0.58 percent to 25,307. In Seoul, South Korea, the Kospi Composite fell 15.63 points or 0.59 percent to 2,645. Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at NAB, said the yen has not been able to display its typical safe-haven attributes because of the big rise in U.S. yields and the BoJ yield curve control policy that prevents JGBs from moving up in core global yields.

Japan is also a big energy importer, which adds to concerns over a terms-of-trade shock from higher energy prices. In early European trading Monday, the Japanese currency was trading at 117.76, off an earlier low of 117.87. The Swiss franc has softened to 0.9359.

The Canadian dollar was down to 0.9359. The high-flying Australian dollar was seen to be running out of steam, falling to 0.7241.