SMIC slumps, SoftBank drops in mixed Asia markets Asia Markets

By Marketwatch

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Boats travel on the Huangpu River in front of the Shanghai skyline..

Asian markets were mixed Monday, following a sharp selloff on Wall Street last week.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 /zigman2/quotes/210597971/delayed JP:NIK -0.09% dipped 0.5% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index /zigman2/quotes/210598030/delayed HK:HSI +0.54% fell 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite /zigman2/quotes/210598127/delayed CN:SHCOMP -0.82% declined 1.9% while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite /zigman2/quotes/210598015/delayed CN:399106 +0.52% dropped 2.2%.

South Korea’s Kospi /zigman2/quotes/210598069/delayed KR:180721 -0.72% rose 0.7%, while benchmark indexes in Taiwan /zigman2/quotes/210597977/delayed TW:Y9999 +0.08% , Singapore /zigman2/quotes/210597985/delayed SG:STI -0.55% and Indonesia /zigman2/quotes/210597981/delayed ID:JAKIDX +0.62% were mixed. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 /zigman2/quotes/210598100/delayed AU:XJO -0.18% rose 0.3%.

Data showed China’s August exports were stronger than expected from the prior year, after another strong increase in July.

Shares of Chinese chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. /zigman2/quotes/207270096/delayed HK:981 -0.97% tumbled in Hong Kong trading after a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration is considering placing export restrictions against it, as it has with fellow chip maker Huawei Technologies.

SoftBank Group /zigman2/quotes/207303954/delayed JP:9984 -2.74% shares dropped over 7% on Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported the Japanese investment group bought $4 billion worth of options tied to around $50 billion worth of individual tech stocks.

U.S. markets are closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday. Last week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite /zigman2/quotes/210598365/realtime COMP -1.74% saw a 3.3% weekly decline, its largest since March, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average /zigman2/quotes/210598065/realtime DJIA -2.56% fell 1.8% and the S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX -2.07% lost 2.3%.

“We view the latest selloff as a bout of profit-taking after a strong run,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, in a note Friday.

“Stocks have had a nervy start to trading Monday after the massive two-day slide for global equities since June left investors on edge,” Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at AxiCorp, wrote in a note Monday. “In the short-term, more so with U.S. markets closed today, it should remain an extremely choppy affair, with bounces likely being sold by design.”

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