China lockdowns and a possible US recession hurt Asia markets

• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell as high as 1.8%, while South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.9%.
• Japan’s Topix rose 1.4% and China’s CSI 300 was largely unchanged.
• Lockdowns in China and a possible US recession hurt Asian markets.

Asia-Pacific market emotions differed on Monday, despite the resuming of lockdowns in China and ongoing concerns about the possibility of a US recession.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell as high as 1.8%, while South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.9%. However, Japan’s Topix rose 1.4% and China’s CSI 300 was largely unchanged.

A increasing epidemic of Covid-19 in China prompted the restoration of lockdown measures in one county of Anhui province and the renewal of nationwide testing mandates.

The affected locations included Wuxi, a manufacturing hub in the east, which encouraged workers to work from home and suspended dine-in services at eateries.

Since Shanghai, China’s commercial and financial centre, emerged from a two-month shutdown that shook the markets in April and May, investors have keenly monitored any indications of a recurrence of lockdowns.

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After the latest report on the manufacturing sector provided a bleak image of the health of the world’s largest economy, investors rushed to purchase lower-risk assets, driving up the price of US government bonds towards the end of last week.

This trend continued on Monday, as the yield on 10-year Treasury notes, which moves inversely to price, decreased by 0.09 percentage points to reach 2.89 percent.

Oil prices decreased, with worldwide benchmark Brent crude trading at $111.48 per barrel, a decrease of 0.1%.

Futures contracts for the Euro Stoxx 50 and the FTSE 100 were up 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively, as European futures climbed.