Market Update
Shares in most Asian markets opened lower Tuesday, taking cues from Wall Street, which ended Monday with minor losses.
Asian markets, which saw a rally in the past few trading sessions on improving jobs data in the U.S. and worries over Greece's fiscal problems receding, now await macroeconomic data from China Thursday.
At 7:30 a.m. (IST), the Japanese Nikkei was trading 0.2% lower, China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng softened 0.2%, while India's Sensex was yet to open. Across the region, Australia's benchmark ASX traded flat.
A bout of profit-taking may have been expected after Asian shares rose rapidly in the past few weeks, with the Japanese Nikkei being a standout performer adding 4.3% in just the past two days.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index, a collective measure of stocks in the region, traded flat at 122.64, after it rose to a six-week high on Monday.
Across the region, stocks that gained the most in the recent rally receded. In Australia, shares in mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton declined 1% and 0.9%, respectively, after commodity prices eased. Consumer stocks in the region, though, rose after a survey showed a rise in business confidence.
In Japan, shares in most companies that have substantial sales outside of Japan softened as a result of a bounce-back in the Japanese yen. The Japanese yen rose against the U.S. dollar Tuesday after seeing a continuous decline in the past week.
On the Nikkei, Honda Motor Co. and Canon went down by 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively, though Sony Corp gained 0.7%.
In commodities, prices of gold and crude oil softened.