Asia report: Most markets rise while Sydney stumbles on glitch

Markets in Asia ended mostly higher on Monday, though a technical glitch halted trading on the Australian bourse which, combined with a public holiday closing Japan’s floors, made for a quieter day in the region.

Despite the lack of market activity, the yen grew stronger against the greenback, and was last 0.38% ahead at JPY 101.9.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.79% at close of business, to 3,026.61, and the Shenzhen Composite added 1.06% to finish at 2,001.29.

In South Korea, the Kospi added 0.82% to 2,015.78, after being closed for the last three days of last week for the Mid-Autumn Festival, while Taiwan’s Taiex rose 2.81% to 9,152.88.

Apple suppliers were the main catalyst for the risers in Taiwan, as retailers around the world launched the iPhone 7, with Largan rising 5.7%, Pegatron up 7.21% and Quanta adding 5.73%.

Apple’s main competitor in the smartphone market, Samsung, closed up 2.03% in Seoul after it emerged the company sold shares in a number of holdings, including semiconductor specialist AMSL Holding, chip maker Rambus, hard drive firm Seagate Technology and Japanese electronics maker Sharp.

The news came amid a massive global recall of Samsung’s faulty Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, with one million devices officially recalled in the US alone on Friday, with reports the device’s battery is at risk of randomly combusting.

US, Australian and other aviation authorities have already banned commercial airline passengers from powering on their Note 7 phones, even in flight mode, for fear of an onboard explosion.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.92% to close at 23,550.45.

The markets were looking stateside at the start of the week, for clues on the timing of the next interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve, after a number of analysts changed tack on the likelihood of a rise in September following weaker-than-expected economic data.

Oil prices were ahead during Asian trading, with Brent crude last up 1.23% at $46.34 and West Texas Intermediate adding 1.56% to $43.71 per barrel.

The ASX open was delayed by a technical glitch, before halting trade during the afternoon and not reopening at all on Monday, with no closing single price auction.

“ASX will advise the process for determining closing prices, remaining session states and status of orders,” the market operator said in a statement.

Later in the afternoon, ASX managing director Dominic Stevens said the error arose from a hardware failure in the main database, which caused a “number of knock-on consequences that affected the operation of the market.”

He said the issues were not to do with any security breaches, and the ASX was working with its technology partner to identify the glitch properly and prevent a recurrence.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 rose 0.4% to 7,278.12 - the second day of gains after a six-day losing streak.

Property stocks, which were the big loser of the sell-off, gained on Monday, with Stride Property leading the benchmark as it added 3.1%, and Kiwi Property rising 1.7%.

Both of the down under dollars were stronger on the greenback, with the Aussie 0.67% ahead at AUD 1.3257 and the Kiwi strengthening 0.55% to ZND 1.3685 per $1.