Asian shares unwound early gains on Wednesday, as weakness in Chinese stocks continued and investors turned cautious following renewed selling in recently battered crude oil futures.
Financial spreadbetters predicted a lacklustre start to European trading, with IG expecting Britain’s FTSE 100 to open down 0.2 percent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC were expected to shed a few points and open flat in percentage terms.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan erased a positive start to edge down 0.1 percent, on track for a flat monthly performance and down 12 percent for the year.
On Wall Street, major U.S. indexes each gained more than 1 percent. All 10 major S&P sectors ended with gains, led by a 1.34 percent rise in the technology sector, which lifted the S&P 500 to a modest increase for the year.
Japan’s Nikkei ended the country’s final trading day of the year up 0.3 percent, off session highs but still gaining 9.1 percent for 2015. But it shed 3.6 percent in December.
The broader Topix rose 0.3 percent in thin trade, with only 1.32 billion shares changing hands, the lowest since April 2014.
“We’re seeing thin volumes at year-end as the number of active participants has decreased due to the holidays,” said Martin King, co-managing director at Tyton Capital Advisors.
Australian shares outperformed, rising 1 percent to mark their ninth consecutive day of gains.
But China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.2 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index was flat, ahead of December manufacturing activity surveys which are expected to show the economy remains sluggish.
Qi Yifeng, an analyst at consultancy CEBM, said Chinese investors mostly worried about the economy, and a potential equity glut.
“Next year, there will definitely be a surge in share supply,” Qi said, citing the expiration of the share-sale ban and reforms that would make new listings much easier.
Also damping investor sentiment, a Reuters poll showed that activity in China’s manufacturing sector is expected to have contracted for a fifth straight month in December. The official data will be released on Friday, and a similar private survey on Monday.
Higher U.S. Treasury yields underpinned the dollar overnight, although yields were off highs in Asia.
The yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes stood at 2.292 percent, compared with its U.S. close of 2.307 percent on Tuesday.
On the U.S. two-year note, the yield closed at 1.095 percent on Tuesday after earlier touching its highest level since April 2010.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, was up about 0.1 percent at 98.176.
After touching a nearly two-week low earlier in the session, the index rose to nearly a one-week high of 98.413 on Tuesday. It is up 8.8 percent for the year, though down nearly 2 percent for the month as investors pared their dollar-long positions after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s widely anticipated interest rate increase in mid-December.
The dollar was steady at 120.40 yen, while the euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.0930.
The Australian dollar, meanwhile, slipped about 0.1 percent to $0.7286 as the renewed selling in crude prices prompted investors to lock it gains on its rise to $0.7303 overnight, its highest since Dec. 10.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASX) ended last trading session with a change of 0.53 percent. It trades at an average volume of 1.06M shares versus 593099 shares recorded at the end of last trading session. The share price of $5.74 is at a distance of 26.43 percent from its 52-week low and down -24.75 percent versus its peak. The company has a market cap of $9.12B and currently has 1.59B shares outstanding. The share price is currently 3.82 percent versus its SMA20, 1.78 percent versus its SMA50, and -2.66 percent versus its SMA200. The stock has a weekly performance of 3.61 percent and is -0.32 percent year-to-date as of the recent close.
China Mobile Limited (CHL) recently recorded 1.01 percent change and currently at $56.86 is 5.12 percent away from its 52-week low and down -22.39 percent versus its peak. It has a past 5-day performance of 0.16 percent and trades at an average volume of 736.57K shares. The stock has a 1-month performance of -1.66 percent and is -0.35 percent year-to-date as of the recent close. There were about 4.10B shares outstanding which made its market cap $232.90B. The share price is currently -1.09 percent versus its SMA20, -3.4 percent versus its SMA50, and -8.73 percent versus its SMA200.
58.com Inc. (WUBA) has 139.22M outstanding shares, at current price of $65.88 each. The company now has a market cap of $9.17B after showing a change of 0.75 percent during the last trading session. The share price is currently 2.43 percent versus its SMA20, 15.07 percent versus its SMA50, and 10.92 percent versus its SMA200. The recent price brings its past 5-day performance at 0.63 percent and trades at an average volume of 1.26M shares. The stock is up 77.34 percent from its 52-week low and -21.3 percent versus its peak. It has a 1-month performance of 13.39 percent and is 58.56 percent year-to-date as of the recent close when its volume was 546453 shares.
