Asia close: Kospi ends lower after US redeploys carrier strike group to Korea
Asian equities closed on a mixed note at the start of the week, with South Korea's Kospi ending lower after the US diverted a carrier strike group from Australia to the waters around the peninsula.
Asian equities closed on a mixed note at the start of the week, with South Korea's Kospi ending lower after the US diverted a carrier strike group from Australia to the waters around the peninsula.
South Korea's benchmark equity gauge, the Kospi, lost 0.9% as the country's currency, the won, slipped 0.7% to 1,142.38 against the US dollar.
The region's other main benchmarks were mixed, with Japan's Topix adding 0.66% to 1,499.65 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ahead by 0.86% at 5,912.88 by the closing bell.
Yet the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.02% to 24,262.18 and the Shenzhen CSI 300 lost 0.34% to 3,5050.64.
Dollar/yen was 0.25% higher as of 1235 GMT to 111.32, as traders reacted to what appeared to be an amicable conclusion to three days of contacts between US president Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, although it should be noted that many FX traders (in London at least) were likely away from their desks due to the Easter holiday.
As an aside, traders appeared to brush off the latest weekly US CFTC data showing a dip in the number of short positions in dollar/yen from 53,180 to 45,800.
In remarks made after their summit, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said: "[we] got deeply acquainted, established a kind of trust and built an initial working relationship and friendship."
At the summit it was also decided that a Chinese envoy would be sent to South Korea to discuss the situation with both countries' neighbour to the north.
Monday's key data releases in Japan were mixed.
Japan's current account surplus improved from 66bn yen in January to 2.8trn yen for March $25 billion ($25bn) and 2.4trn yen for the year-ago period.
Economists had projected a surplus of 2.51trn yen.
On a negative note however, the current conditions sub-index in the Cabinet Office's Economy Watchers Survey fell for a third month running, from 48.6 in February to a six-month low of 47.4 for March.
A sub-index tracking the outlook was also weaker, retreating from a reading of 50.6 to 48.1.
"Today’s survey jars with the positive message from consumer confidence, the service PMI and the Tankan’s non-manufacturing index which all picked up in the latest reading," said Marciel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics.
To take note of, while the EWS had a poor track-record when it comes to predicting movements in consumer spend, the sub-index linked to conditions in manufacturing - which fell from 48.8 to 47.7 - had done a better job in anticipating changes in industrial output, Thieliant said.