Asia-Pacific markets lead equities declines

Most Asia-Pacific equities markets saw significant declines Monday. The main exception to declines came for the Shanghai Composite, which added 2.06 percent to 4,438.26. Elsewhere, the Taiex was down 1.78 percent to 8,262.87 while the Kospi index was 2.33 percent lower to 1,671.73. Australia’s Sydney Ordinaries fell 2.89 percent to 5,510.7 and the S&P/ASX200 dropped 2.98 percent to 5,405.8.

The Hang Seng was down 3.07 percent to 23,584.97 in Hong Kong while in Singapore the Straits Times Index was 3.3 percent lower to 2,926.55. In India the Sensex dropped 5.12 percent to 16,677.88, a decline of 900 points on the session. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was down 4.49 percent to 12,992.18, losing 610 points. The Topix index fell 4.01 percent to 1,271.15 while the Mothers market dropped 3.14 percent to 673.51.

Europe’s equities markets declined as well, but not nearly as much as most Asian markets. The Eurofirst 300 was down 1.31 percent to 1,298.11. Frankfurt’s Dax dropped 0.86 percent to 6,689.95 and the Paris CAC-40 was 1 percent lower to 4,742.66 while the IBEX dropped 2.34 percent, or 307 points, to 12,862.5 in Madrid. Equities markets in London were lower for the fourth consecutive session. The FTSE 100 was 1.12 percent lower to 5,818.6 while the FTSE 250 dropped 0.54 percent to 10,013.9.

Wall Street was mixed in afternoon trade, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.15 percent to 12,247.75 and the Nasdaq Composite 0.35 percent lower to 2,263.55 but the S&P 500 managing a gain of 0.05 percent to 1,331.31.

Crude oil and metals prices were higher on the session. Grains prices were higher in Chicago.

The US dollar was lower versus the euro as well as the yen, but was stronger versus other Asian currencies.

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