SYDNEY, NSW, Australia-sharemarkets in Asia were mixed on Monday. China's Shenzen went into lock down recently after a major spike in Covid 19 cases.
According to a Monday note, China is experiencing the largest wave of COVID since the end of the national lock-down in March 2020, according to ANZ Research's Raymond Yeung and Zhaopeng Xing.
China's economic growth will be affected if the lockdown is extended. It is too early to change our GDP growth forecast of 5.0% for 2022, but we are wary of the impact of a partial lock down in the economically rich provinces, according to ANZ analysts.
The Shanghai Composite fell by 86.21 points or 2.60 percent to close Monday at 3,223. The Hang Seng plunged 1,053 in Hong Kong, which caused real damage. 95 points or 5.13 percent of the population is projected to be 19,499. The Hang Seng tech index fell more than 11 percent, which was the hardest hit for tech stocks. Alibaba plummeted 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 slid 16.27 points or 0.14 percent, across the Tasman, to 11,805. 59 percent of the population grew to 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 15.63 points.
Rodrigo Catril, senior FX strategist at NAB, said that the yen has not been able to display its typical safe-haven attributes, due to 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 a big energy importer, adding to concerns over a terms-of-trade shock from higher energy prices. The Japanese yen was trading at 117.76 in early European trading Monday, off an earlier low of 117.87. The Swiss franc has softened to 0.9359.
The Canadian dollar fell to 0.9359. The high-flying Australian dollar was seen to be running out of steam, falling to 0.7241.