SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks were mixed on Monday morning as investors await the release of Chinese economic data.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.3% in morning trading while the Topix index was up 0.16%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.12%.
Mainland China stocks were higher, with the Shanghai Composite gaining 0.39% while the Shenzhen component gaining 1.061%. A range of Chinese economic data, including the country’s industrial production and retail sales for April, is expected to be released at 10:00 a.m. HK / SIN on Monday.
In Australia, the S & P / ASX 200 gained 0.54%.
MSCI’s broadest index for stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan rose 0.14%.
Currencies and oil
Meanwhile, investors also monitored Bitcoin price after Tesla CEO Elon Musk hinted in a Twitter exchange on Sunday that the electric vehicle maker might or may not sell the rest of its holdings in cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin was priced at $ 45,142.89 on Sunday at 9:33 p.m. ET on Sunday, according to Coin Metrics.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its peers, hit 90.378 after falling over 90.8 recently.
The Japanese yen was trading at 109.33 per dollar after falling below 109 against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7763 after falling above $ 0.78 last week.
Oil prices were higher on the morning of trading hours in Asia and the international benchmark’s Brent crude oil futures rose 0.29% to $ 68.91 a barrel. US crude oil futures rose 0.32% to $ 65.58 a barrel.
Here’s a look at what’s on tap:
- China: Fixed investment, industrial production, and retail sales data for April at 10:00 AM HK / SIN
Comments are closed.