Asia: Stocks mixed as oil prices slide, Japan's Abe wins election
Asian stocks were mixed amid concerns about falling oil prices and as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scored a decisive election victory.
Brent crude oil was sitting at $63.04 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate was at $58.61 in morning trade, after OPEC and IEA cut their forecasts for oil demand.
“The main thing weighing on sentiment recently and driving certain equities lower is the continued sell-off in oil, with the decline having continued on Friday having broken through the $60 a barrel level in WTI crude and gapped lower this week,” according to Craig Erlam, analyst at Alpari UK.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.95% while the Shanghai composite gained 0.52%.
Ma Jun, chief economist of the People’s Bank of China’s research centre, said China is likely to see the economic expansion decelerate to 7.1% next year due to a continued slowdown in real estate investment.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 ended down 1.57% as the nation’s currency strengthened against the US dollar to hurt exporters.
Abe’s ruling coalition won more than two-thirds of the 475 seats in lower-house elections. The prime minister will get up to four more years in office.
Meanwhile, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined as a group of people were taken hostage by a gunman in a cafe at Sydney’s Martin Place. Hostages were forced to raise a black flag with Arabic writing in a window. Five hostages had fled from the restaurant following a nine-hour standoff with police.
In company news, Toyota Motor Corp., was among the big fallers in Tokyo. Japan Airlines Co. declined after the carrier’s rating was lowered to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ at UBS AG.
Korea Electric Power Corp. edged lower after the nation’s president said electricity prices should reflect the lower cost of oil.