BANGKOK (AP) – Global shares were mixed yesterday, with European stocks mostly lower after a day of gains in Asia.
Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong rose. London was little changed. Shanghai was closed for a holiday. Oil prices advanced while United States (US) futures slipped.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country will include international investigators in a probe into alleged atrocities against civilians by Russian troops.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, joined a growing chorus of international criticism of the alleged atrocities, saying the 27-country bloc “will advance, as a matter of urgency, work on further sanctions against Russia”.
Additional sanctions could impact energy and other markets, adding to uncertainties.
Germany’s DAX lost 0.7 per cent to 14,344.48 and the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.6 per cent to 6,646.42. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.2 per cent higher to 7,552.03. On Wall Street, the future for the S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent while that for the Dow industrials shed 0.2 per cent.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4 per cent. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3 per cent and the Russell 2000 of small caps gained one per cent.
Shares in Hong Kong-traded Chinese companies surged yesterday after regulators in Beijing said they plan to revise rules regarding access of overseas regulators to full audits of companies that have shares listed in overseas markets. The Chinese financial magazine Caixin reported that China proposed the revisions of rules restricting sharing of financial data of offshore-traded companies to help resolving a longstanding dispute with the US that could result in more than 200 Chinese stocks being kicked off American exchanges.
Shares in video platform BiliBili soared 10.5 per cent in pre-market trading. Meituan’s shares gained 7.4 per cent, search engine Baidu jumped 7.8 per cent and e-commerce JD.com surged 5.7 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 2.1 per cent to 22,502.31 after Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she would not seek a second term.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.3 per cent to 27,736.47. The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.7 per cent, to 2,757.90. Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3 per cent to 7,513.70, while India’s Sensex jumped 1.9 per cent to 60,411.20. Wall Street benchmarks rose on Friday after a healthy report on the US jobs market eased worries over the recovery from the pandemic, though it also reinforced the likelihood of more interest rate hikes.
Oil and gas prices have been rising as demand recovers from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a major producer, has raised the risk that sanctions and export restrictions might crimp supplies.
A barrel of US crude oil gained 67 cents to USD99.94 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday.
Brent crude, the international standard for pricing, picked up 52 cents to USD104.91 per barrel.
In currency dealings, the dollar was unchanged at JPY122.61. The euro fell to USD1.1027 from USD1.1042.
