Major mainland China markets lead losses in mixed Asia trading day

March 10, 2022: Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Wednesday, as mainland China and Hong Kong markets struggled to recover from losses seen earlier in the week.

The Shanghai Composite in mainland China closed 1.13% lower at 3,256.39, and the Shenzhen component declined 1.122% to 12,107.17. The CSI 300 index, which tracks the most extensive mainland-listed stocks, shed 0.92% to 4,226.35. All three indexes had earlier fallen over 3% each.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.67% to close at 20,627.71.

On Wednesday, official data released showed China’s producer inflation rising in February, with the producer price index more than 8.8% year-on-year for that month. The February data compared against January’s 9.1% on-year rise and was close to analysts’ expectations for an 8.7% gain in a Reuters poll.

Meanwhile, China’s consumer price index for February increased 0.9% compared to a year ago, unchanged from the growth in January and in line with expectations from a Reuters poll.

Elsewhere in Japan, the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.3% on the day to 24,717.53 while the Topix index was fractionally lower at 1,758.89.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia increased 1.04% to close at 7,053. Over in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s Straits Times index gained 1.55%, as of 4:21 p.m. local time.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.49%.

On Wednesday, Markets in South Korea were closed as the country’s presidential election.

Oil prices increased to their session highs on Tuesday after President Joe Biden said the U.S. would ban imports of Russian oil, a further escalation in the international response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The United Kingdom also announced its plans to phase out its reliance on Russian oil imports by year-end.

Investors in the region continued monitoring oil prices on Wednesday, which increased in the afternoon of Asia trading hours.

International benchmark Brent crude futures increased 0.99% to $129.25 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.88% to $124.79 per barrel.

Overnight stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 184.74 points, or 0.56%, to 32,632.64. The S&P 500 is decreasing 0.72% to 4,170.70 while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.28% to 12,795.55.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 98.981, having traded in a range amid 98.7 and 99.4 so far this week.

The Japanese yen traded at 115.83 per dollar, which is less than levels below 115.2, seen against the greenback this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7293, which declined from above $0.738 earlier this week.