Major Asian indicators are falling at the end of the week. China's Shenzhen Composite lost almost 1%, down 0.92%, Shanghai Composite dropped by 0.07%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.54%. Other indicators of the region dropped more significantly: the Japanese Nikkei 225 fell by 1.75%, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index went down 1.58% and the Korean KOSPI declined by 0.91%.
Asian indicators in their movement mostly duplicate the sentiment of US markets. Decline of the US stock markets was caused mainly by the Federal Reserve Chairman's statement about his intention to raise the interest rate by 50 basis points as early as next month. The pace of US inflation amounted to 8.5% last month. This news led to traders' more cautious attitude.
Japan's statistics was another reason for investors' pessimism. The growth of consumer prices accelerated to 1.5% from the previous reading of 0.9%. Therefore, inflation hit its high for the last 3.5 years. According to experts' forecasts, the price growth was expected not to exceed 0.8%. Notably, the price growth rate remains within the central bank's target of 2%.
As for the constituents of Nikkei 225, shares of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. declined by 5.2%, stocks of Pacific Metals Co. and M3 Inc. fell by 4.6% and 4,8% respectively. Moreover, Sony shares were down 2.8%, SoftBank Group stocks dropped by 2.9%, Asia Fast Retailing shares lost 2.6% as well as automakers Nissan Motor and Toyota Motor shares declined by 1.9% and 1.6% respectively.
Among the companies included in the Hang Seng Index indicator, shares of Galaxy Entertainment Group, Ltd. dropped by 3.9%, stocks of Sands China, Ltd. fell by 2.3% and Techtronic Industries Co. and Tencent Holdings, Ltd. shares lost 2.4% each. Other stocks declined slightly, Geely went down 2% and Alibaba fell by 1.9%.
Among South Korean companies included in the KOSPI index, Samsung Electronics Co. declined by 0.7% and Hyundai Motor lost 1.1%.
As for S&P/ASX 200 index components, Megaport shares plunged with its stock prices dropping by 10% due to the release of a negative corporate report. BHP and Rio Tinto declined slightly, down 4% and 3% respectively.
