Asia markets fall as traders assess Japan, Aussie business activity data and U.S. tech earnings
Japan’s Nikkei 225
dropped 1.11% to close at 39,154.85, marking a one-month low.
The index was dragged by utilities and real estate stocks, while the broad-based Topix was down 1.42% to end at 2,793.12. Flash data from the au Jibun Bank showed that the country’s business activity returned to growth.
Japan’s composite purchasing managers’ index for July was at 52.6, up from 49.7 in June. This was “indicative of solid growth” among Japanese private sector firms, the report said.
Late Tuesday, automaker Toyota said it will buyback 806.85 billion yen ($5.17 billion) of its shares from major Japanese banks and insurers, including Tokio Marine, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.
The company said this was part of “ongoing efforts to reduce cross-shareholdings in order to build a lean balance sheet. Shares of Toyota rose 0.13%.
South Korea’s Kospi was 0.56% lower at 2,758.71, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.26% and finished at 814.25, the only major Asian benchmark in positive territory.
Heavyweight Samsung Electronics plunged 2.26%. The South Korean electronics company is still grappling with a strike from its largest workers union, with talks on Tuesday yielding no results, according to the National Samsung Electronics Union, which has about 30,000 members.
Separately, Reuters reported that chip giant Nvidia had cleared Samsung chips for use in a processor for the China market.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was little changed at 7,963.7, after the country saw its private sector activity expand at a slower pace in July, with the composite purchasing managers’ index dropping to a six-month low of at 50.2 compared to 50.7 in June, according to Juno Bank.
