CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stock markets are mixed on Wednesday despite the overnight gains on Wall Street. Investors turned cautious as they awaited the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, amid indications of a tight race in some battleground states.
The Australian market is declining as investors awaited the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and also digested local economic data.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 67.90 points or 1.12 percent to 5,998.50, after touching a high of 6,078.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 67.50 points or 1.08 percent to 6,195.30. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Tuesday.
Among the major miners, Fortescue Metals is losing more than 5 percent, Rio Tinto is lower by almost 2 percent, and BHP Group is declining more than 1 percent.
Gold miner Evolution Mining is declining more than 1 percent and peer Newcrest Mining is down almost 1 percent.
In the banking space, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking are lower in a range of 1.3 percent to 2.0 percent, while National Australia Bank is down almost 1 percent.
Oil stocks are also mostly lower even as crude oil prices rose overnight. Woodside Petroleum is losing 0.6 percent and Santos is lower by 0.4 percent, while Oil Search is advancing more than 1 percent.
Woolworths Group said its food sales rose 12.9 percent in the first quarter, while sales for the entire group increased by more than 12 percent. However, the supermarket giant's shares are declining almost 1 percent.
On the economic front, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the total value of retail sales in Australia dropped a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent on month in September, standing at A$29.157 billion. That beat forecasts for a decline of 1.5 percent following the 4.0 percent drop in August.
The Australian Industry Group said that the construction sector in Australia moved into expansion territory in October, with a seasonally adjusted Performance of Construction score of 52.7. That's up from 45.2 and it moves above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. It's also the first expansionary result since August 2018.
IHS Market said that the services sector in Australia continued to expand in October, and at a faster pace, with a seasonally adjusted services PMI score of 53.7. That's up from 50.8 in September and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
The Japanese market, which resumed trading after a holiday in the previous session, is advancing following the positive cues from Wall Street.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 363.45 points or 1.56 percent to 23,658.93, after touching a high of 23,798.13 in early trades.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is declining almost 2 percent, while Fast Retailing is rising more than 2 percent.
Meanwhile, the major exporters are higher despite a stronger yen. Panasonic is rising by more than 2 percent, Sony is advancing more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 1 percent and Canon is up 0.6 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 2 percent and Tokyo Electron is up 0.3 percent.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is rising more than 1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is higher by more than 1 percent and Toyota is advancing almost 1 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Fujikura is gaining more than 24 percent, NTT Data Corp. is rising more than 11 percent and Yamaha Corp. is higher by almost 6 percent.
Conversely, Japan Exchange Group is losing almost 4 percent and Nexon Co. is lower by almost 3 percent.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan said that the monetary base in Japan was up 16.3 percent on year in October, coming in at 601.284 trillion yen. That follows the 14.3 percent jump in September.
Members of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy board said that the country's economy is gradually picking up even as the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to continue to hamper the global economic recovery, minutes from the central bank's monetary policy meeting on September 16 and 17 revealed. The minutes also showed that while corporate profits and business sentiment have deteriorated, the bank has vowed to take additional easing steps if it proves necessary.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 104 yen-range on Wednesday.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia are also higher, while Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong are lower.
On Wall Street, stocks closed higher on Tuesday as traders seemed to be hoping for a definitive outcome from today's presidential election. Democratic candidate Joe Biden holds a clear lead in national polls and is also leading in several key swing states in the race to defeat President Donald Trump. Traders seem optimistic that the results of the election will be known at the end of the night without the need for lawsuits and recounts.
The Dow spiked 554.98 points or 2.1 percent to 27,480.03, the Nasdaq surged up 202.96 points or 1.9 percent to 11,160.57 and the S&P 500 jumped 58.92 points or 1.8 percent to 3,369.16.
The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on Tuesday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index spiked by 2.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index soared by 2.4 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday, thanks to a weaker dollar and hopes that OPEC and allies will likely postpone a plan to ease output cuts in January. WTI crude for December settled higher by $0.85 or about 2.3 percent at $37.66 a barrel.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2020 AFX News
