Asian Markets, Oil Prices, and Australia’s Retail Sales

Stocks across Asia saw gains on May 6. Also, oil prices regained some of their overnight gains. Let’s have a look at the markets and how they performed on Wednesday.

Interestingly, South Korea’s Kospi index added 1.76% to close at 1,928.76 as shares of automaker Hyundai Motor gained 1.86%. Another South Korean index Kosdaq also added 2.57% to end its trading day at 658.40. 

Mainland Chinese stocks also strengthened their positions on Wednesday, after recovering from an earlier slip. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.63% to about 2,878.14. At the same time, the Shenzhen Composite added 1.526% to around 1,790.28. 

Also, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 1.34% as of its final hour of trading, with shares of life insurer AIA added more than 2%.  

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.42% to close at 5,384.60. 

Importantly, Australia’s retail sales in March increased by 8.5%. This information comes from the country’s Bureau of Statistics. This result surpassed expectations. 

People should take into account that markets in Japan and Thailand were closed on Wednesday for holidays.

Markets and oil prices

It is important to note that oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asian trading hours after rising earlier on a day. Notably, international benchmark Brent crude futures dropped 0.29% to $30.88 per barrel. Also, U.S. crude futures also fell 1.06% to $24.30 per barrel. 

However, oil prices jumped on Tuesday thanks to the optimism regarding the ongoing production cuts. Moreover, the demand for oil will also increase as economies reopen. For example, the West Texas Intermediate, soared 20.45% or $4.17 to reach $24.56 per barrel. Brent added 13.86% to $30.97 per barrel. 

The coronavirus pandemic continues to dominate the headlines. Investors are closely monitoring the situation. Some of the largest economies in the world are located in Asia. Thus, it will be hard to stabilize the situation without global effort. Hopefully, governments are ready to spend billions of dollars to support the economy.