SINGAPORE (July 19): Asian shares are set to end the week on a sour note, as uncertainty across the geopolitical landscape and in major economies added to headwinds for investors, even as the global rate easing cycle gets under way.

It has been a turbulent week in markets, with a tech sell-off sparked by deepening Sino-US trade tensions, uncertainty over US President Joe Biden’s fate in the presidential race, disappointing Chinese economic data and a lacklustre third plenum outcome casting a shadow over the global mood.

In the foreign exchange market, Tokyo’s recent bouts of intervention also kept traders on edge.

“We could just be getting a taste of things to come. And that is more turbulence,” said Matt Simpson, a senior market analyst at City Index.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.1%, and was headed for its worst week in over a month with a 2.4% loss.

Japan’s Nikkei fell to a more than two-week low and was last down 0.1%, extending its sharp 2.4% fall from the previous session.

The Nikkei looked set to end the week 2.7% lower, also its steepest weekly decline in three months.

Technology stocks continued to struggle, with South Korea’s tech-heavy Kospi and Taiwanese stocks both easing more than 1%.

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix was last 0.7% lower, though Japan’s Tokyo Electron, a chipmaking equipment manufacturer, rebounded some 2.6%, after an 8.75% tumble on Thursday.

Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, fell 1.3%, even after the company posted better-than-expected earnings on Thursday and raised its full-year revenue forecast.

In China, investors were left disappointed over a lack of details provided on the implementation steps for achieving the country’s economic policy goals at the conclusion of its closely watched plenum on Thursday.

Chinese blue-chips fell 0.08% in early trade, while the Shanghai Composite Index edged 0.07% lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1.5%.

“While more robust details are likely still forthcoming, we interpret the initial communique as the third plenum failing to deliver anything especially meaningful that would suggest changes to the longer-term direction for the Chinese economy,” said Brendan McKenna, an international economist at Wells Fargo.

The onshore yuan opened a touch weaker at 7.2626 per dollar.

The euro was last 0.02% lower at US$1.0893, having fallen 0.4% in the previous session, after the European Central Bank kept rates on hold as expected, but left the door open to a September cut, as it downgraded its view of the eurozone’s economic prospects.

“The policy statement gives little away, offering no meaningful changes from June — continuing to stress a data-dependent approach to policy setting,” said Nick Rees, a foreign exchange market analyst at MonFX.

“We still think that a September cut remains the base case.”

The dollar was, meanwhile, on the front foot, distancing itself from a four-month low hit earlier in the week against a basket of currencies.

Sterling dipped 0.03% to US$1.2942, while the Australian dollar fell 0.12% to US$0.6698.

The dollar was underpinned by strong US manufacturing data and jobless figures that did little to suggest a significant slowing in the labour market, though traders are still pricing in a September rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

The yen was a touch firmer at 157.31, helped by suspected bouts of intervention from Japanese authorities to prop up the currency, and as an acceleration in the country’s core inflation last month kept alive expectations that the Bank of Japan could soon raise interest rates.

In commodities, oil prices fell, as mixed economic signals weighed on investor sentiment.

Brent crude futures eased 0.58% to US$84.62 (RM395.77) a barrel, while US crude futures slid 0.81% to US$82.15 per barrel.

Gold fell 0.8% to US$2,425.19 an ounce, retreating from a record high hit earlier this week on the prospect of lower global interest rates. 

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee