SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks fell in Monday trading as Japan’s markets collapsed. Meanwhile, China left its key rate unchanged.
Japanese stocks lost ground regionally, with the Nikkei 225 falling 4% in Monday trading. It later made up some of those losses but was still trading 3.43% lower in the afternoon. The Topix index lost 2.86%.
Japan lost most sectors, with automakers such as Nissan and Honda each dropping more than 4% in shares. Fanuc’s shares fell nearly 6%. In financials, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s shares fell 2.94% and Mizuho Financial Group’s shares fell 2.03%.
Asia Pacific markets are sliding
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China announced on Monday that the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was left unchanged at 3.85%, while the five-year LPR was also held steady at 4.65%. This was in line with the expectations of the majority of analysts in a short Reuters survey that had predicted no change in the one-year credit interest rate or the five-year LPR.
Currencies and oil
The Japanese yen was trading at 109.81 per dollar, stronger than levels above 110.5 against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7493 and was still struggling to recover from falling above $ 0.768 last week.
Oil prices were higher on the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude oil futures rising 0.52% to $ 73.89 a barrel. US crude oil futures rose 0.64% to $ 72.10 a barrel.
– CNBC’s Patti Domm contributed to this report.
