Asian stocks close with no single direction, after losses on Wall Street

Asian stocks closed with no single direction on Thursday (19), as investors were more cautious after Wall Street suffered on Wednesday (18), the biggest daily drop of the year.

In Tokyo, the Japanese Nikkei index fell 1.44%, to 26,405.23 points, reversing part of the previous trading session’s jump, when it was favored by the decision of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to leave its monetary policy unchanged. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng had a slight loss of 0.12%, at 21,650.98 points.

In mainland China, on the other hand, the markets had moderate gains, supported by optimism with the recovery of the Asian giant after the abrupt reversal of the “covid zero” policy last month. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.49%, to 3,240.28 points, and the less comprehensive Shenzhen Composite advanced 0.67%, to 2,112.10 points.

The South Korean Kospi was also in the blue, up 0.51% in Seoul, at 2,380.34 points, reversing losses from earlier in the trading session. In Taiwan, a holiday kept the local stock exchange closed for the second day in a row.

The mixed behavior in Asia came after New York stocks fell between 1.2% and 1.8% on Wednesday, posting their biggest single-day losses since early 2023, amid renewed fears over the possibility of a recession. In the USA.

In Oceania, the Australian stock exchange started negative, influenced by Wall Street, but ended up recovering. The S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.57% in Sydney to 7,435.30 points, hitting a nine-month high. With information from Dow Jones Newswires.