Most Asian markets declined Monday, as concerns about monetary- and property-market tightening combined with weak cues from the U.S. to prompt a selloff across various sectors.
Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index collapsed 159.37 points, or 0.7%, to 23,527.30
In Hong Kong, China Resources Land fell 3% and Shimao Property Holdings shed 2%.
The Australian market finished higher, with retail-sector shares rising after sales data for November came in line with expectations.
David Jones each climbed 2.7%, while Harvey Norman Holdings added 0.7%.
In Seoul, LG Electronics added 1.3% on hopes for a quarterly earnings turnaround early this year, helped by improvements in its television and handset businesses.
Senao International jumped 4.9% in Taipei after the Commercial Times reported, without citing sources, that the mobile-phone retailer and China Unicom (Hong Kong) are considering a joint venture to open telecommunications stores in mainland China.
In foreign-exchange trading, the euro declined to a fresh four-month low of $1.2875 against the U.S. dollar ahead of euro-zone government bond auctions this week. Portugal, widely considered one of the euro zone’s most fragile economies, is scheduled to sell up to 1.25 billion euros ($1.61 billion U.S.) in debt this week, with about €24 billion euros of total bond supply due during the week from Europe.
CHINA
Chinese property developers suffered broad losses following mainland media reports that the city of Chongqing was set to impose a new tax on luxury property.
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Index faded 58.44 points, or 1.9%, to 3,108.19
Poly Real Estate Group declined 3% and Gemdale dropped 2%, while China Vanke shed 1.7%, all three erasing early gains.
In other markets
Korea’s Kospi Index subtracted 5.39 points, or 0.3%, to 2,080.81
Taiwan’s Taiex Index added 35.16 points, or 0.4%, to 8,817.88
Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 32.08 points, or 1%, to 3,229.27
New Zealand’s NZX 50 inched up 6.13 points, or 0.2%, to 3,324.07
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 7.30 points, or 0.2%, to 4,712.30.
