Asian stocks follow Wall Street lower


FE Team | Published: July 18, 2019 11:14:20 | Updated: July 20, 2019 13:19:40


Asian stocks fall on trade war fears

Asian stock markets on Thursday followed Wall Street lower after US President Donald Trump reignited trade fears by saying he could impose more tariffs on Chinese imports.

Benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney all declined. Oil rebounded from the previous day's losses.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6 per cent to 2,913.49 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.6 per cent to 21,128.12. Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.4 per cent to 28,465.17.

Seoul's Kospi was 0.2 per cent lower at 2,066.94. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 shed 0.3 per cent to 6,655.60 and Taiwan and Southeast Asian markets also retreated. New Zealand gained.

On Wall Street, stocks extended their losses into a second day as railroad operator CSX had its biggest drop in 11 years, pulling other industrial companies down with it.

CSX plunged 10.3 per cent after saying it expects this year's revenue to decline as much as 2.0 per cent, after previously saying it expected growth, reports AP.

Benchmark US crude gained 1 cent to $56.79 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 84 cents on Wednesday to close at $56.78.

Brent crude, used to price international oils, advanced 17 cents to $63.83 in London. It lost 69 cents the previous session to $63.66.

The dollar declined to 107.73 yen from Wednesday's 107.97 yen. The euro gained to $1.1239 from $1.1226.

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