Employees work in the trading room inside the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking head office in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.
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Asia-Pacific markets fell Monday as traders weighed the impact of Iran’s massive drone and missile attacks on Israel over the weekend, with focus also on key economic data from China and Japan later in the week.
Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles against military targets in Israel on Saturday in an attack that U.S. President Joe Biden described as “unprecedented.”
The U.S. intervened to directly help Israel shoot down nearly all of the incoming munitions, Biden said in a statement Saturday.
Oil prices were little changed on Monday morning, with Brent crude futures trading 0.14% down at $90.32 per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures down 0.32% at $85.39.
India’s wholesale inflation climbed 0.53% in March, slightly higher than Reuters’ estimates of a 0.51% rise.
China will announce its first-quarter GDP numbers on Tuesday. Japan will release its March trade data and inflation numbers on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.74%, paring some losses, to close at 39,232.8, while the broad-based Topix was down 0.23% at 2,753.2.
South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.42% to finish at 2,670.43, while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 0.94%, closing at its lowest level since Feb. 13.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 saw a smaller loss compared to the other Asian markets, down 0.46% at 7,752, and declining for a third straight day.
However, mainland China’s CSI 300 bucked the trend to jump more than 2%, marking its largest one-day gain since Feb. 6 and ending at 3,549.08. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was last down 0.55%.