Asian Markets Sag on Lingering Growth Woes
Tokyo: Asian stocks sagged on Tuesday amid lingering growth concerns, while the Australian dollar plumbed six-year lows after the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to a record low.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1 percent after latest series of weak US data exacerbated worries about the state of the global economy.
Japan's Nikkei shed 0.3 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.4 per cent.
Many Asian bourses gained earlier in the session after Greece's new government appeared to take a step towards ending a stand-off with its creditors, before the lift petered out.
Buoyed by the RBA rate cut, Australian shares were up 1 percent. The RBA cut its cash rate by a quarter of a point to 2.25 per cent in a bid to spur a sluggish economy.
The Aussie retreated to $0.7650, lowest since May 2009.
"There'll be room for another cut this year, how soon remains to be seen. We've been thinking two (cuts) and it's hard to steer away from that at this point," said David De Garis, senior economist at National Australia Bank.
In commodities, US crude oil was up 0.9 per cent at $49.99 a barrel, already having surged more than 10 percent over the past two sessions as some investors bet that a bottom had been reached after a seven-month long rout.
Currencies from oil exporting countries such as the Canadian dollar and Norwegian crown held on to solid gains as a result.
The Canadian dollar rallied to C$1.2557 per US dollar, well off a near six-year low of C$1.2800. The Norwegian crown climbed as far as 7.6142 per dollar, up 2.3 per cent in the past two sessions.
The euro stood steady at $1.1331 after gaining 0.5 per cent overnight on hopes for a deal on Greek debt and poor US economic data.
Following last week's disappointing GDP data, Monday's indicators showed US consumer spending fell and construction spending rose less than expected in December, while an industry report pointed to slowing in the manufacturing sector in January.
The dollar slipped 0.2 per cent to 117.25 yen after briefly touching a two-week low of 116.64 overnight.
Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2015