SINGAPORE — Hong Kong and mainland China markets led losses in Asia on Tuesday as geopolitical tensions rose over U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
The Hang Seng index fell 2.94%, with heavyweights like Alibaba and Meituan falling 2.83% and 2.96% respectively. The Hang Seng Tech index slipped 4.18%.
Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite lost 2.93% and the Shenzhen Component shed 3.11%.
Local media reports citing unnamed sources said Pelosi would go ahead with her visit to Taiwan, a democratic self-ruled island that China sees as a runaway province.
Regarding Pelosi’s trip, Beijing warned that its army would “never sit idly by” and will “uphold China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press conference on Monday.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company‘s shares fell 2.58%, compared with a 1.86% loss in the wider Taiex index.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Japan slipped 1.59%, and the Topix index lost 1.81%.
In South Korea, the Kospi shed 0.9% and the Kosdaq declined around 1%.
Consumer prices in South Korea rose 6.3% in July compared with the same period in 2021, official data showed on Tuesday. That’s in line with expectations and the fastest acceleration in prices since November 1998, Reuters reported.
The Bank of Korea raised rates by 50 basis points in July.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.36% lower.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to hike by 50 basis points after official data showed prices in Australia rose 6.1% in the second quarter compared with a year ago.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan declined 1.55%.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 46.73 points, or 0.14%, to 32,798.40.
The S&P 500 shed 0.28% to 4,118.63 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.18% and closed at 12,368.98.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 105.289.
The Japanese yen traded at 130.82 per dollar, continuing its strengthening trend. The Australian dollar was at $0.7014, after breaking above $0.7.
“The AUD is higher as the USD drifted lower overnight amid more weak U.S. data,” ANZ Research said in a Tuesday note.
Oil futures slipped on Tuesday. U.S. crude shed 0.73% to $93.20 per barrel after settling 4.8% lower in the previous session, and Brent crude lost 0.91% to $99.12 per barrel. The international benchmark settled 3.79% lower in the previous session.
