Beijing, Jan 3 (BUS): Asian stock markets were mixed Monday on the first trading day of 2022 after Wall Street finished last year with double-digit gains.
Hong Kong retreated while Seoul rose. Markets in Japan, China and Australia were closed.
The benchmark S&P 500 index fell on Wall Street on Friday amid persistent concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus, but ended 2021 with an annual gain of 26.9%.
“It remains to be seen to what extent the new year’s optimism will be reflected in financial markets,” Venkateswaran Livania of Mizuho Bank said in a report, according to the Press Agency (AP).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.6% to 23,252.69 while Seoul’s Kospi rose 0.4% to 2,990.80.
India’s Sensex opened 1% higher at 58809.99. Singapore, Jakarta and Malaysia advanced. Thai markets are closed.
Also on Monday, the Singapore government announced that its economy grew 7.2% last year, rebounding from the previous year’s 5.4% contraction.
On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 4,766.18. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% to 36,338.30. The Nasdaq fell 0.6 percent to 15,644.97.
In energy markets, benchmark US crude rose 56 cents to $75.77 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.78 on Friday to $75.21. Brent crude, the price basis for global oils, rose 54 cents to $78.32 a barrel in London. It lost $1.75 in the previous session to $77.78 a barrel.
The dollar rose to 115.28 yen from 115.09 yen on Friday. The euro fell to $1.1341 from $1.1383.
HF