Asia: Most regional stocks down, China rises on new short-selling rules

Most indices in Asia continued to fall on Tuesday, but Shanghai jumped on news of a regulatory clampdown on short-selling to curb volatility.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 3.7% after Chinese authorities announced they will step up a crackdown on short-selling of shares.

The new rules will make it harder for spectulators to profit from hourly changes in stock prices and will mean short-sellers must wait at least one day to cover their positions and pay back loans used to buy shares.

As a result, Huatai Securities and Citic Securities said they will temporarily suspend their short-selling services.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.11%. Gaming revenues declined 34.5% year-on-year in July in Macau. However, this was still better than analysts expectations of a 35% decline. Nonetheless, resort and casino operator Sands China fell 0.44%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index declined 0.14% hurt by the weak commodity prices, with gold near five-year lows. Oil prices were recovering from recent lows but Brent crude was still below $50 a barrel while WTI was hovering around $45.

Japanese oil company Inpex lost 1.63% and construction manufacturer Komatsu declined 2.34%.

The yen was at JPY124.05 against the dollar.

In economic data, Japanese labour cash earnings declined 2.4% year-on-year in June, from an increase of 0.7% same time last year. Data released by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare came below expectations of a 0.9% increase.

Elsewhere in Australia, the ASX index was up 0.31% after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to keep its interest unchanged at 2%.

Governor Glenn Stevens said: "While the rate of [economic] growth has been somewhat below longer-term averages, it has been associated with somewhat stronger growth of employment and a steady rate of unemployment over the past year.
"Overall, the economy is likely to be operating with a degree of spare capacity for some time yet."

The Australian stock market also welcomed positive data by the country's Bureau of Statistics. Exports rose 3% in June while imports rose 4%. driving the trade deficit higher at $2.9bn from $2.67bn.

Retail sales also improved in June to 0.7% from 0.4% one month earlier.