By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch , Colin Ng and Ga-Woon Philip Vahn
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Most Asian markets declined Monday, as concerns about monetary- and property-market tightening combined with weak cues from the U.S. to prompt a selloff across various sectors.
Indonesian, Chinese and Indian stocks were among the worst affected.
China’s Shanghai Composite (CN:SHCOMP 2,792, -46.99, -1.66%) dropped 1.7%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HK:HANGSENG 23,527, -159.37, -0.67%) shed 0.7%, South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.3% and Singapore’s Straits Times fell 1%.
In afternoon trading, India’s Sensex (XX:SENSEX 19,224, -492.93, -2.44%) was off 2.1% and Indonesian shares were down 4.2%.
Among the gainers, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 (AU:XJO 4,712, +7.25, +0.15%) climbed 0.2% and Taiwan’s Taiex edged up 0.4%.
Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
Friday’s U.S. jobs report was a disappointment, and investors are also wary about the coming U.S. quarterly earnings season.
“I think everybody is just a little bit cautious. It’s also the start of the reporting season in the U.S. … and quite a lot of data are coming in this week,”said Andrew Sullivan, director of institutional sales at OSK Securities. “People are still working out where to make fund allocations, and even if they do have additional fund allocations, they are not too keen to jump in with both feet.”
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA 11,675, 0.00, 0.00%) futures were 30 points lower in screen trade.
Chinese property developers suffered broad losses following mainland media reports that the city of Chongqing was set to impose a new tax on luxury property. Read about China’s planned luxury-property tax.
Poly Real Estate Group (CN:600048 13.97, -0.43, -2.99%) declined 3% and Gemdale (CN:600383 6.88, -0.14, -1.99%) dropped 2%, while China Vanke (CVKEY 0.00, 0.00, 0.00%) (CN:000002 8.74, -0.15, -1.69%) shed 1.7%, all three erasing early gains.
In Hong Kong, China Resources Land (HK:1109 14.90, -0.46, -1.00%) (CRBJY 0.00, 0.00, 0.00%) fell 3% and Shimao Property Holdings (HK:813 13.04, -0.26, -1.95%) (SIOPF 1.45, -0.03, -2.03%) shed 2%.
Indian and Indonesian stocks extended their losses on worries that the countries’ central banks might soon raise interest rates to cool consumer-price inflation.
In Mumbai trading, shares of HDFC Bank (HDB 153.22, -3.33, -2.13%) were off 3.6% and engineering major Larsen & Toubro (LTOUF 44.25, -0.75, -1.67%) was down 3.4%; in Jakarta, Bank Mandiri (PPERF 0.66, -0.02, -2.94%) dropped 7% and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BKRKF 1.11, +0.06, +5.66%) slid 5.1%.
Speaking to reporters in Jakarta, Indonesian Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said the recent decline in the Indonesian market wasn’t an indicator that strong capital inflows were reversing.
