Stocks in Asia-Pacific and Coronavirus Pandemic

It was a tough day for stocks in the region. Importantly, stocks in Asia-Pacific were lower on Tuesday as concerns regarding a coronavirus surge in multiple countries affected optimism over the vaccine rollout in the U.S. Let’s have a look at the stocks on December 15 across Asia-Pacific to learn more about the situation. 

Importantly,  mainland Chinese stocks were mixed on December 15. The Shanghai Composite fell slightly to 3,367.23. At the same time, the Shenzhen Component added 0.52% to 13,763.31. 

Interestingly, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was about 0.6% lower, as of its final hour of trading.

According to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics, China’s industrial production grew 7% year-on-year in November. Interestingly, retail sales in China increased 5% in November as compared with a year ago. However, this result missed expectations.  

Stocks across the region

It is worth noting that, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.17% to close at 26,687.84. In the meantime, the Topix index declined 0.47% to finish its trading day at 1,782.05.

South Korea’s Kospi index declined 0.19% to close at 2,756.82.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.43% to close at 6,631.30. 

Interestingly, shares of Australian coal miners fell on Tuesday. 

Shares of Whitehaven Coal declined 5.88%. Moreover, shares of Coronado Global Resources fell 10.04% and Yancoal dropped 8.43%. Notably, major miner BHP also saw its stock drop 2.25%. 

The trade dispute between China and Australia, created serious problems for the Australian companies. China imposed tariffs on various products. Moreover, it won’t be easy to find other markets to replace China. 

The coronavirus pandemic remains one of the important topics, and investors are closely monitoring the situation. Hopefully, private as well as governmental organizations are working hard to stabilize the situation. However, it would take at least a couple of months to distribute the vaccine around the world.