Asian Shares Retreat On Interest Rate Concerns

Asian stocks fell on Friday as a spike in treasury yields and plummeting oil prices on the back of demand concerns and a rising dollar weighed on investors’ risk appetite.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite index slumped 58.40 points, or 1.69 percent, to 3,404.66, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended down 414.78 points, or 1.41 percent, at 28,990.94.

Japanese shares fell sharply after the Bank of Japan said it would only buy Topix-linked exchange traded funds.

The Nikkei average fell 424.70 points, or 1.41 percent, to 29,792.05, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.18 percent to 2,012.21, its highest level since 1991.

Nikkei heavyweights Fast Retailing and SoftBank Group tumbled 6.1 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

Tokyo Electron lost 2.6 percent and Advantest shed 1.2 percent while shipping lines Mitsui OSK Lines, Kawasaki Kisen and Nippon Yusen surged 3-4 percent.

Banks Mizuho Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rose 1-2 percent on expectations they would benefit from rising interest rates.

In economic news, overall consumer prices in Japan were down 0.4 percent year-on-year in February, official data showed. That matched expectations and was up from a decline of 0.6 percent in January.

Australian stocks ended lower, dragged down by miners and energy companies. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index slid 37.70 points, or 0.56 percent, to 6,708.20, while the broader All Ordinaries index ended down 44 points, or 0.63 percent, at 6,959.60.

Oil Search, Santos and Woodside Petroleum lost 2-3 percent as oil prices plunged on demand worries due to rising Covid-19 cases. Lower copper prices weighed on the mining sector, with BHP, Fortescue Metals Group and Rio Tinto all ending down over 1 percent.

Healthcare stocks finished broadly lower while tech stocks ended on a mixed note. Gold miners also ended mixed, with Newcrest falling 3.4 percent while Northern Star Resources surged 4.2 percent.

In economic news, a government report showed the total value of retail sales in Australia fell a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent month-on-month in February.

Seoul stocks fell after an overnight hike in long-term U.S. Treasury yields. The benchmark Kospi hit as low as 3,022.49 before recouping some of its loss to end the session down 26.48 points, or 0.86 percent, at 3,039.53.

Heavyweight Samsung Electronics dropped 1.2 percent, No. 2 chipmaker SK Hynix gave up 2.8 percent and leading chemical firm LG Chem tumbled 3.6 percent.

New Zealand shares ended a choppy session slightly higher, with the benchmark NZX-50 index rising 19.08 points, or 0.15 percent, to 12,515.22.

U.S. stocks fell overnight as oil prices recorded their biggest one-day drop since September and bond yields surged on expectations for faster economic recovery and inflation.

Economic reports proved to be a mixed bag. While U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly jumped to a one-month high due to the impact of Winter Storm Uri, a measure of regional manufacturing activity spiked to a nearly 50-year high.

The Dow dropped half a percent and the S&P 500 shed 1.5 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index plunged as much as 3 percent amid a sell-off in technology stocks.

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