Asian Markets Retreat on Monday as China Declines While Japan Sees Modest Gains

Asian markets posted mixed performances on Monday, March 10, as Chinese and Hong Kong stocks declined amid broad-based weakness, while Japan’s equities saw moderate gains driven by semiconductor and trading firm stocks. Investors remained cautious, with weakness in technology names weighing on the Hang Seng Index.

China mainland’s stock markets ended lower. The Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.19%, closing at 3,366.16 points; the Shenzhen Component Index slipped 0.17% to 10,825.70 points; while the ChiNext Index dropped 0.25%, closing at 2,199.88 points. Sector performance was mixed, with pharmaceutical commerce stocks showing strong gains.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell 1.85%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 2.52%. Among actively traded stocks, Alibaba lost 3.93%, Tencent declined 3.19%, Xiaomi fell 2.76%, Meituan slid 4.69%, and SMIC dropped 4.67%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose 0.38%, while the TOPIX Index edged down 0.29%. Notable gainers included Advantest, up more than 3%, Murata Manufacturing, rising over 2%, while SoftBank Group, Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo Electron, and Shin-Etsu Chemical all gained over 1%.

In other Asian markets, South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.27%, closing at 2,570.39 points. Malaysia’s FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 0.48%, ending at 1,539.85 points, while Singapore’s STI Index fell 0.29%, closing at 3,903.08 points. In India, the S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.20%, closing at 74,479.15 points, and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index declined 0.53%, closing at 6,601.04 points as of 16:13 SGT.