The Asia-Pacific Stock Exchanges (APX) suffers losses as major stock indexes are reducing their positions following the fall in the US and Europe stock exchanges the previous day. Note that the trading indicators of the US and Europe plummeted Wednesday, but the APX did not lose enthusiasm. However, on Thursday, the situation has changed dramatically. And the main factor of pressure is still the deteriorating coronavirus situation across the globe.
Some European countries are already reimplementing lockdowns and restrictive quarantine measures to combat the spread of coronavirus infection. The situation in individual countries has escalated to the limit against the background of a rapid increase in infections. In particular, France and Germany are ready to stop all possible economic processes on their territory by the end of November this year. Of course, Asian traders could not help but react to this.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Index dropped 0.28%. The unsatisfactory statistics on the country's economy also added fuel to the fire. First, the Bank of Japan decided to leave the short-term interest rate on deposits at the same negative level of 0.1% per annum. Second, the forecast for the GDP level has been revised for the worse. For the current fiscal year, which should come to an end in March 2021, the decline should already be 5.5%, while previous data indicated a decrease of 4.7%. This turned out to be a fully justified decline, which was due to the slow recovery of demand in the country's services sector. Nevertheless, analysts note that the country's economy is still coping well with the consequences of the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The level of retail sales in Japan in the first month of autumn fell by 0.1%, while earlier this indicator showed a rapid growth of 4.6%. On an annualized basis, retail sales fell by 8.7%, which turned out to be much worse than the initial estimates which expected a fall of no less than 7.7%.
China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.32%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index did not support the positive trend and sank 0.6%.
South Korea's KOSPI parted from 0.91%. It should be noted that the index of confidence in business circles in the country became significantly higher in the second month of autumn: it moved to the level of 79 points, although earlier it occupied the mark of 68 points.
The Australian S&P / ASX 200 index fell 1.61% at once.
Meanwhile, a positive atmosphere reigns on European stock exchanges. Major stock indexes are growing on expectations of changes in ECB policy, which is expected to conduct a meeting on Thursday.
The general index of large enterprises in the STOXX Europe 600 region jumped 0.41% in the morning, which moved it to 343.57 points.
The UK FTSE 100 Index climbed 0.42%. The German DAX index rose 0.79%. France's CAC 40 index rose 0.34%. Italy's FTSE MIB Index also gained 0.45%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index is the only one that showed negative dynamics which decreased by 0.78%.
In addition to the announcement lockdowns on several European countries, market participants are also looking forward to the release of the next portion of corporate statistics with the hope of finding at least some signals for a positive attitude.
Investors are also waiting for the ECB's readiness to start ratifying new stimulus measures in the economy. So far, there are no grounds for emergency implementation, which is likely to be the reason for their postponement at least until December of this year.
