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A sluggish session on Wall Street with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 slipping to small losses, while the Nasdaq struggled to a small gain to set another record high combined with falling oil prices and market jitters over the prospect of a hard-Brexit for the UK to dampen spirits over the Asian session. With the yen also strengthening against the dollar the Nikkei 225 recorded a loss of 0.79% to mark its return to action following Monday’s national holiday. The ASX 200 similarly took a hit over in Australia, though the Hang Seng in Hong Kong and Singapore’s STI did manage to register Tuesday gains.
In Tokyo Sony was the Nikkei’s best performer of the day, up 2.35%. Electronics and semiconductor company Tokyo Electron was next, up 1.6% while pharmaceuticals group Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma came in third with a return of 1.59%. Nisshin Steel and Tokyo Zinc both had good sessions, up 1.34% and 1.09% respectively while department store company Marui was another positive performer with a gain of 1.37%.
Frozen foods and refrigerated warehouses giant Nichirei Corp. was Tuesday’s heaviest faller with a loss of 3.75%. Insurance holding Sompo Japan Nipponkoa finished 3.51% down and the bronze medal in the fallers’ table went to deliveries and logistics company Yamato Holdings which lost 3.32%.
The big car manufacturers were all down today with Toyata losing 0.56%, Nissan 0.21% and Honda 1.11%. In the financial sector Nomura Holdings lost 1.61% and Softbank gained 0.72% while in oil and gas Inpex registered a loss of 1.52% and JX Holdings 1.12%.
Down in Sydney, the ASX 200 took a 0.8% loss as the financial sector, which has been providing solid support for the index over the past few sessions finally also succumbed to losses. ANZ took a heavy 1.5% loss with Wespac dropping 0.8%. In the commodities and mining sector BHP Billiton slid 0.4% though Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals gained 1.01% and 2.05% respectively, reversing the trend of yesterday when financials had supported losing commodities giants.
Other fallers included Telstra, Australia’s biggest telecoms and media company which shed 0.95%. Primary Health Care lost 4.8%, GUD Holdings Limited, which imports, manufactures and distributes cleaning and household products fell 3.7% and insurer QBE lost 2.9%.
In the risers table there were a few big moves up with self-managed superannuation fund and wealth management tech business Class Ltd. rocketing over 11% after an impressive quarterly update. Another fintech business, investment management and financial planning platform Praemium, also jumped 11.5% on its 4th quarter growth. Sports-focused wearable technology group Catapult Group was another winner, up 9.9%.
